Discovery Communications unveil new functional areas to work with Olympic Movement

Discovery Communications have unveiled new departments to deal with their Olympic Games work ©Discovery Communications

A five-pronged programme has been unveiled by Discovery Communications following their €1.3 billion (£965 million/$1.5 billion) deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to broadcast the next two Olympic cycles.

The company’s Olympic Games leadership organisation team will have five key functional areas, it has been unveiled, spanning commercialisation, operations and planning, Olympic relations and coordination, engineering and technology, and production.

Managers for the first three of these groups have also been unveiled.

Jean-Thierry Augustin will lead the driving of all Olympic sales and commercial opportunities within the sport development and Olympic commercialisation department, while former NBC Olympic operations head David Schafer has been named senior vice-president of Olympic operations and planning.

After beginning his Olympic career at Sydney 2000, Schafter has worked on seven Olympic Games and won three Emmy Awards for coverage in Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Sochi 2014.

Géraldine Filiol has been appointed vice-president of Olympic relations and project coordination, and will be responsible for the Olympic project coordination and managing external stakeholder relationships with sub licensees, the IOC and International Federations.

The new appointments have been made ahead of the coverage of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games ©Getty Images

Managers for the final two groups are still to be confirmed.

“Discovery is committed to elevating the excitement and engagement in the Olympic Games through our world-class storytelling, local market expertise, and Eurosport’s heritage of connecting fans with key Olympic sports all year long,” said JB Perrette, President of Discovery Networks International.

"Since announcing the ground-breaking deal this summer, we already have selected three of five Olympic leadership roles, aligning our structure to ensure we have the best in class talent - both on the screen and within our organisation."

Discovery act as the parent company of Eurosport, who will cover the Pyeongchang 2018, Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Olympics, as well as the yet to be awarded 2024 Games.

The deal will apply to every European territory, except for Russia, accounting for 53 countries in total.

Eurosport has also appointed three new leaders to oversee business sevelopment, mrketing and communications.

Former MP & Silva managing director Sameer Pabari has been named vice-president, while Antonio Ruiz will lead the marketing department and Fiona McLachlan, a former consultant for Weber Shandwick, will spearhead the communications team.