IFSC announces 3-year broadcast deal with Discovery Sports

In what can only be described as yet another surprising move, on Friday the International Federation of Sport Climbing (IFSC) announced it had struck a 3-year deal with Discovery Sports to broadcast all IFSC World Cup and World Championship events on discovery+, Eurosport App and Eurosport’s linear channels.

While this may be good news to some, in effect it puts to an abrupt end the IFSC's free live streaming service of its competitions on youtube in all countries and territories covered by Discovery and Eurosport, as well as those where existing TV contracts are already in place, such as ESPN Latin America and NHK in Japan. Those wishing to view the competitions live in these areas are obliged to subscribe to these channels that cost somewhere in the region of €7.99/month or €50/year. The IFSC will however continue its delayed free streaming of events via The Olympic Channel, to be shown 24 hours after the end of each live round within each event.

IFSC President Marco Scolaris explained the reasoning behind the deal "More than anything, our agreement with Discovery will raise the profile of our sport and our athletes, which should result in greater sponsorship opportunities for all climbers around the world. We are confident that partnering with Discovery will help solidify our position as one of the fastest-growing Olympic sports and, thanks to the greater exposure, will lead more and more people to become interested in not only watching Climbing, but also trying it out."

In many ways Friday's decision is similar to the shambollic move made in April 2017 when the IFSC announced just hours before the start of the international season at Meiringen in Switzerland that it had reached a 3-year agreement with Flosports, an American subscription based platform. At the time the immediate backlash was so ferocious that the IFSC was forced to perform a U-turn and continue to offer the live youtube streaming service for free. Five years have passed since then, the popularity of sport climbing has grown significantly and after its debut Olympics at Tokyo 2020, athletes are slowly gearing up to Paris 2024.

Just like in 2017, the first 2022 competition is scheduled to take at Meiringen in Switzerland at the start of. Back then the athletes published an open letter in protest and issued the IFSC with a symbolic red flag. It is currently unclear what their reaction will be this time round.

IFSC WORLD CUP CALENDAR 2022
8-10 April – Meiringen (SUI) – Boulder
6-8 May – Seoul (KOR) – Boulder, Speed
20-22 May – Salt Lake City (USA) – Boulder
27-29 May – Salt Lake City (USA) – Boulder, Speed
10-12 June – Brixen (ITA) – Boulder
22-25 June – Innsbruck (AUT) – Boulder, Lead
30 June -2 July – Villars (SUI) – Lead, Speed
8-10 July – Chamonix (FRA) – Lead, Speed
22-23 July – Briançon (FRA) – Lead
2-3 September – Koper (SLO) – Lead
24-26 September – Jakarta (INA) – Lead, Speed
30 September - 2 October – Wujiang (CHN) – Lead, Speed
6-9 October – Chongqing (CHN) – Boulder & Lead
October – TBD location in Japan – Boulder

Info: www.ifsc-climbing.org