Warner Bros. Discovery U.K.
boss Andrew Georgiou said the Olympucs had been “great” for the media company. Georgiou was speaking at the tail-end of a phenomenally successful summer in Europe for WBD, which had the exclusive pay TV rights to the Olympic Games across most of Europe. “We had more subscribers come on after Day 4 [of the Olympics] than we had in the entire Tokyo games,” he said.
“On linear we outstripped our growth...
so for us it’s done a fantastic job across all of the markets. The challenge of course is keeping the customers.” Georgiou, who is the president and managing director of WBD in U.
K. and Ireland and of the company’s European sports division, was speaking on a panel titled “How to win audiences and influence them” on Tuesday morning at the Royal Television Society conference in London. His fellow panellists included Sky Studios CEO and chief content officer Cécile Frot-Coutaz, Walt Disney EMEA’s senior VP for strategy and business development Nami Patel and Sarah Rose, president of Channel 5 and Paramount ‘s U.
K. regional lead. The panel was moderated by Financial Times journalist John Gapper.
“What live [TV] does is give people a reason to engage at the same time,” Georgiou added of the worldwide athletics championship. “It focus a global population on a single event.” He also confirmed that WBD streamer Max is set to launch in the U.
K. in 2026 although whether it’s in partnership with Sky — with whom WBD has a lon.