Super League Triathlon reached what it called ‘a significant milestone’ on Monday with the news that it has agreed a major partnership with Discovery Sports.
The deal means:
- SLT’s Arena Games Triathlon and Championship Series will air in 50 markets in Europe across Discovery’s network of channels and platforms.
- Live and on-demand coverage of SLT events could potentially reach more than 200 million viewers via broad television coverage and streaming via discovery+ and the Eurosport App.
- The partnership does not rule out the possibility of another UK broadcast alongside Eurosport. The BT deal last year was only for the 2021 Championship Series.
SLT chief on new deal
Michael D’hulst, CEO at Super League Triathlon, described the deal as ‘a significant milestone’, expaining: “Our mission is to bring professional triathlon to a mainstream audience and give our amazing athletes and sport the best platform to grow.
“Partnering with Discovery is a significant milestone as it allows us to work with a fantastic company who, like Super League, are known for innovation and delivering amazing content to sports fans.
“It also opens up triathlon for regular viewing to a massive audience already engaged in watching sport.”
For the sport as a whole, having access to an engaged audience is a noteworthy opportunity, echoed by Trojan Paillot, VP of Sports Rights Acquisition and Syndication at Discovery Sports.
Discovery to scale up SLT
He said: “We have long championed elite triathlon events between Olympic cycles and are committed to bringing inspirational stories involving the world’s best triathletes to fans across Europe.
“We look forward to partnering with Super League Triathlon to harness the full scale of our channels and digital platforms including discovery+ to offer viewers access to every moment of SLT action in 2022.”
Super League’s mantra of ‘elite athletes and elite storytelling’ showcases quick and exciting race formats in eye-catching destinations across the globe.
And the early focus in 2022 will be the Arena Games, which this year will crown the first official triathlon esports World Champions thanks to its ground-breaking partnership with World Triathlon via events in Munich (April 9), London (April 23) and Singapore (May 7).
Later in the year SLT will stage its global Championship Series with a calendar of outdoor events around the world.
And the storytelling aspect is enhanced by the news that Discovery will harness its expertise in real-life entertainment to bring SLT’s latest documentary series ‘Every Second Counts’ to discovery+ along with additional shoulder content for fans.
Racing to keep up: Is social media making us train harder?
