By Jonathan Easton

Discovery Sports has announced a 50 market rights deal with Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS).

The five-year partnership will see Discovery carry FIS World Cup events across Eurosport and streaming platform discovery+, starting from the 2021-22 season. The deal also includes the FIS Alpine and Nordic World Ski Championships in 2023 (France and Slovenia) and 2025 (Austria and Norway) along with the FIS Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships in 2023 (Georgia) and 2025.

The agreement secures exclusive access for all events in more than 40 markets, and will provide viewers with at least 1,000 hours of live content per year.

President of Sports, Discovery, Andrew Georgiou said: “Eurosport has always been the home of winter sports, bringing fans the greatest choice of events and access to the sports they love. I’m delighted that Discovery Sports’ continued investment in the world’s greatest events and our renewed partnership with Infront will allow us to deliver every Alpine, Cross Country and Nordic Combined World Championships and World Cup race; every Snowboard, Freestyle and Freeski World Championships and World Cup and more Ski Jumping events than anyone else, which will help us to unlock the power of winter sports as we build towards Beijing 2022.

“Our deep winter sports expertise and localised production combined with the immense scale and reach of Discovery’s European portfolio including via Eurosport and discovery+ means we can continue to use our world-class storytelling ability to bring fans closer to their heroes, delivering action from the most exciting winter sports to the widest possible audience.”