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Discovery's Eurosport signs on for televised drone racing
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 [October 17, 2016]
(Reuters) - Eurosport, Discovery
Communications Inc's European sports broadcaster, announced on
Monday it has signed a deal to broadcast drone races, joining a
number of networks to televise the fledgling sport in which pilots
navigate remote-controlled aircrafts at high speeds through aerial
obstacle courses.
Eurosport has signed a one-year deal with DR1 Racing, a Los
Angeles-based drone racing organization, to broadcast the Drone
Racing Invitationals on Nov. 8 as well as three additional races
next year in 70 countries.
The pan-European sports media group, which Discovery bought last
year, has 228 million subscribers in 93 countries in Europe, Asia
and Australia and hopes drone racing will help it reach a younger
audience, Peter Hutton, chief executive of Eurosport, told Reuters.
For Eurosport and other networks, drone racing represents an
opportunity to combine the live-event attraction of NASCAR and
Formula 1 with the digital-age appeal of what has become known as
eSports, in which video game players compete while millions of
viewers watch online, usually for free.
"We think the space has gotten interesting ... and we like the idea
of having storylines around individuals that we can build up as
heroes," Hutton said of the drone pilots. "We see this as a journey
toward a younger demographic."
Reuters reported earlier this month that Eurosport was in talks with
potential partners to broadcast drone racing.
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Eurosport, like other networks experimenting with drone racing, will
broadcast the races on TV after they have occurred on a
post-produced basis in order to show edited clips, Hutton said,
adding that other footage will be available online.
Eurosport joins Disney Corp's ESPN, British broadcaster Sky Plc and
Germany's ProSiebenSat.1, all of which have recently signed on to
broadcast races by the 15-month-old Drone Racing League. Sky also
agreed to invest $1 million in the league.
(Reporting by Jessica Toonkel, editing by G Crosse)
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