Discovery's Zaslav says he's bullish on Europe

CAMBRIDGE, England, Sept 17 (Reuters) - Discovery Communications' Chief Executive David Zaslav said there were opportunities in Europe to develop the factual content that would drive the company's growth in a multi-platform age, led by its Olympics coverage from 2018.

Zaslav said the company's channels, which include Animal Planet and Discovery as well as Eurosport, were in millions of homes in Europe, and there was scope to grow further.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) agreed earlier this year to pay $1.4 billion to show the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 across Europe, beating national public broadcasters that have traditionally shown the event.

"We are still quite optimistic, we are still quite ambitious about investing in content and platforms," he said at the TV industry's RTS Convention in Cambridge on Thursday.

The cable TV industry in the United States was convulsed this summer by worries about "cord cutting," or dropping of cable or satellite TV subscriptions, fuelled by Walt Disney Co's admission that its sports juggernaut ESPN had lost a "modest" number of customers.

Zaslav said the changes in the industry were not new nor unexpected.

"I don't think (the industry) has a cold, I don't think it's sick. I think it's evolving," he said.

Zaslav said Discovery would continue to invest in the content that new players, such as Apple (NasdaqGS: AAPL - news) , needed to light up their devices, but it would not overspend.

"In sports, at least for now, our view is we could have a hell of a business with Eurosport and not play that extreme bidding game for EPL (the English Premier League) or football here in the UK or throughout Europe," he said.

In response to a question about whether Discovery could be interested buying a British broadcaster such as ITV (LSE: ITV.L - news) , Zaslav said he would "probably look" at all such opportunities.

"If there are media assets that become available, our number one priority is international expansion, Latin America and Europe being front and centre, so as assets become available here we are always looking at them," he said. (Reporting by Paul Sandle; Editing by Mark Potter)