Discovery Unveils Plans for Olympic Games Coverage

Discovery has revealed its plans for 2022 Olympic Winter Games coverage in Europe, including 1,200 hours of live sport, a reimagined version of the Cube and a slate of documentaries leading up to the games.

During the games, Discovery will broadcast 1,200 live hours to 50 countries and territories in 19 languages. There will be 13,701 commentator sessions, with 107 sports experts and presenters, who have a combined tally of 95 Olympic medals.

The groundbreaking Cube will return, creating an entire virtual world to bring the viewers even closer to Beijing and the games. Avatars built to closely resemble athletes will float in the Cube, so experts can walk around them and analyze the minutiae of athletes’ movements and performance in more detail than ever before.

Multiple documentaries are on Discovery’s slate ahead of the Opening Ceremony, including A Brilliant Curling Story, taking an in-depth look at how, despite a lack of funding, five unassuming women from Scotland united for a chance at Olympic glory. The series debuted on discovery+ in the U.K., Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland and Italy today and will air across the Eurosport network on January 31.

Additionally, One Last Push, a Discovery Eurosport original, will premiere on Eurosport across Europe on February 1 and on discovery+ in the U.K. on February 2. It goes behind the scenes with Summer Olympian Greg Rutherford as he bids to represent Team GB in the four-man bob at this year’s Winter Olympics.

In Finland, Discovery will go behind the scenes with the national ice hockey team in Leijonat kohti Pekingiä 2022, a ten-part docuseries that will air on TV5. Eurosport in France, meanwhile, will broadcast the feature-length documentary Resilience, telling the story of freestyle skier Kevin Rolland’s near-fatal accident.

Also leading up to the 2022 games, ten episodes of Athletes to Watch, presented by Bridgestone will give viewers the chance to get up close and personal with athletes such as Dorothea Wierer, Andre Hoeflich and Charlotte Kalla.

“For the second time in six months, Discovery viewers will be treated to a stunning Olympic menu of incredible action, top on-screen talent, analysis, innovation and entertainment, on the only place to watch all of the Olympics—discovery+ and Eurosport,” said Andrew Georgiou, president of sport at Discovery. “We showed in Tokyo that we could deliver exceptional and unique Olympic Games coverage, even in the middle of a pandemic. For Beijing 2022, our unrivaled lineup of experts, industry-leading technology and ambitious approach by placing all the live action on discovery+ alongside real-life entertainment content will once again engage viewers for longer both during and after the games. We are really excited to be taking our viewers on a winter sports journey like never before, and we know our audiences will discover and enjoy new insights, stories and highlights as Discovery unlocks the power of the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.”

“Discovery’s ambition for Beijing 2022 is a feat of live and remote production like no other,” said Scott Young, senior VP of content and production at Discovery. “With discovery+, we are the only place to watch all of the Olympics, presenting all 109 events, the most ever at an Olympic Winter Games, from the city venues in Beijing to the mountain regions of Yanging and Zhangjiakou. Discovery has every region, every venue and event covered for viewers throughout Europe.”

Young continued, “The Cube has been completely reimagined and expanded for Beijing 2022 and will be the ultimate storytelling tool. An eye-catching part of our coverage, we see it as sitting at the forefront of broadcast innovation by combining cinematic vision and gaming technology to revolutionize sports presentation and analysis. The studio is all about helping our talented team of experts, presenters and producers tell the best stories in the most compelling way.”

“In addition to our own team, we will be inviting the friends and family of the athletes to be a central part of our coverage,” Young added. “This outstanding initiative, developed by OBS, is designed to give our viewers at home a more immersive experience within our Olympic coverage. Discovery will give fans the opportunity to connect with the Olympic Winter Games in new ways, offering a ring-side seat as the athletes connect to their loved ones back home who could not travel. We are fully ready to capture the passion of competition, every athlete’s story and unlock the power of the Olympic Games.”

James Gibbons, executive VP and general manager of the U.K. and Nordics at Discovery, said, “We are delighted to bring all of the Olympic action to fans across the U.K., this time with the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022, through discovery+ and Eurosport. The Olympics is an event that has something for everyone, and through our ability to show every minute of the action, we can again give viewers the opportunity to follow their favorite sport or athlete or even fall in love with a completely new discipline and be completely unrestricted when it comes to which event or on which device they can access the games.”

Gibbons continued, “Discovery’s multi-platform distribution and partnership model provides us with a unique ability to maximize audiences and reach and serve viewers wherever they are in the U.K. Through pay-TV, free-to-air, streaming, online and our owned and partner channels and platforms, which in the U.K. includes BBC, Sky, Amazon and BT to name but a few, we are able to bring the games and much more to broad audiences as the home of the Olympics in Europe. We are really excited to build on the success of Tokyo 2020, and it’s set to be a viewing experience like no other with over 1,000 hours of live coverage, an unparalleled lineup of winter sports stars and presenters and next-generation immersive technology from the Cube all exclusive to discovery+ and Eurosport’s coverage.”