Global media heavyweight Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has renewed and expanded its carriage partnership in Italy with international sports-focused OTT platform DAZN.
The extended deal ensures that the WBD-owned Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2 channels, which boast top-tier sports rights including athletics, motorsport, cycling, and winter sports, will remain on the DAZN Italy service.
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In expanding the partnership, a host of additional live content from WBD’s digital platforms will now also be hosted on DAZN, including the likes of elite tennis’ French Open (Roland Garros) and Australian Open, road cycling’s three Grand Tour events (the Tour de France, Giro d’Italia, and Vuelta a Espana), and the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympic Games, which will be staged in Italy.
As part of a “broader collaboration” between the two companies, one which began with the first carriage deal in 2020, WBD-owned entertainment channels such as Nove, Real Time, DMax, and the Discovery Channel will also be carried by DAZN for the first time as free-to-air content.
WBD chief executive for Italy and Iberia Alessandro Araimo commented: “We are pleased to have expanded and extended our agreement with DAZN, a key partner that has consistently valued the quality and depth of the Eurosport offering. It’s a rich and varied lineup of sports […] and it fits perfectly within DAZN’s proposition, reaching a significantly broader audience.
“Additionally, we’re excited to bring our entertainment channels to a new platform like DAZN, offering a new showcase for our free-to-air content. This move further demonstrates our group’s innovation in both content production and distribution.”
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By GlobalDataElsewhere in the Italian media landscape, pay-TV heavyweight Sky Italia has announced the formation of a new organizational structure that will encompass its sports broadcast operations, alongside news and entertainment content.
Launching later in July, the division will look to create a cross-genre operational approach with the aim of enhancing broadcast innovation and operational collaboration.
It will be led by Giuseppe De Bellis, who joined Sky Italia in 2018 as the deputy co-director of Sky Sport, overseeing digital editorial content, before becoming the executive vice president and editor-in-chief of the all-news channel Sky TG 24 in early 2019.
De Bellis now becomes executive vice president of sport, news, and entertainment, with the likes of Sky Sport and Sky TG24 rolled into the new structure alongside the broadcaster’s slate of original scripted series, documentaries, films, and free-to-air content.
