Eurosport TV deal in the UK saved at the last minute

Sky and Discovery, the owners of Eurosport, have come to an arrangement at the last minute which means the channel, which is the sole broadcaster of the World Touring Car Championship in the UK, will continue to be on the Sky platform for the foreseeable future.

Discovery had threatened to pull its channels from Sky in the UK as negotiations over a new deal broke down, with Sky understood to have reduced the amount it planned to pay for the network’s TV stations.

The US-based broadcaster staged a social media campaign against Sky, encouraging its viewers to voice their dissent with the service over the last few days.

Sky hit back with a statement saying the decision to pull the channels was Discovery’s choice, and that they believe they’d made a fair offer, while Discovery countered that they felt Sky’s offer was unreasonable.

“Sky pay us less now than they did in 2006,” said a statement. “We have asked them for a few pennies extra per year for each Sky household. We would never choose to come off Sky and abandon our viewers who we value enormously.”

On the eve of the channels being pulled from Sky, the UK’s largest pay TV service, a deal has been struck which means live coverage of two of the FIA’s World Championships, the World Rallycross and Touring Car Championships, will continue to be available on Sky via the Quest and Eurosport channels in 2017

“We can confirm that Sky will continue to carry the Discovery and Eurosport channels,” said a release from Sky.

“We wanted you to be the first to know that we have reached an agreement which means all your favourite channels and programmes will be staying on Sky,” said Discovery on its social media platforms.

“We couldn’t have done it without you.”