Eurosport to rebrand with channels tailored to national tastes

By Kate Holton

LONDON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Eurosport plans to start life under the full ownership of Discovery Communications (NasdaqGS: DISCA - news) with a rebrand to promote a move to more distinct national channels, as it steps up its fight with the likes of Sky (Amsterdam: BK8.AS - news) and Canal Plus (LSE: 0OPK.L - news) .

Eurosport, which reaches 151 million homes across Europe with its main channel, has had a generic European feel in the past which has not always suited viewers' increasing preference for a channel tailored to national tastes.

Having been fully acquired by U.S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) . media company Discovery in October, Eurosport now aims to build audiences around channels more suited to these national tastes, using big name on-screen presenters and pundits well known in each country.

The firm said it would also adopt the so-called Rupert Murdoch "battering ram approach" to promote itself, where a broadcaster uses its best assets, or content, to attract customers and then promote other products.

In this case, some Eurosport programming will be used on Discovery's free-to-air channels to reach a wider audience.

"Pre-Discovery, essentially it was a pan-European model in 21 languages with largely the same content," Eurosport Chief Executive Peter Hutton told Reuters. "That needs to now have a nationality face with it, and to some degree have the right content for that territory."

Founded in 1989, Eurosport has built its business around programming such as tennis, motorsports, basketball, cycling and winter sports.

It (Other OTC: ITGL - news) has held back from buying the most expensive content, such as English Premier League rights, but in June this year it agreed to pay 1.3 billion euros to screen the Olympic Games from 2018 to 2024 across Europe.

Hutton said the battle by the likes of Murdoch's Sky (LSE: BSY.L - news) , BT and Canal Plus for the most expensive rights had caused problems for Eurosport in the past, but offered opportunities.

"Eurosport was always the lowest common denominator of sports content," he said. "Eurosport ended up with a lot of non exclusive sports content which was nice to have but not must have.

"(But now) as Sky and BT spend so much money around the football you actually see them spending a lot less around the other sports and that's a good opportunity for us," he said.

The most immediate change will be a new logo. The Eurosport name surrounded by the stars of the European Union flag will be replaced by a logo with the E of the word Eurosport incorporating a single star.

This will be used across Eurosport's many platforms on TV and online and feature in a new marketing campaign. Antonio Ruiz, marketing vice president, said the broadcaster would look to incorporate Discovery's story-telling approach to programme making.

(Reporting by Kate Holton. Editing by Jane Merriman)