A dispute between Sky and Discovery over access to 12 television channels, including Eurosport, has been resolved ©Discovery

A dispute between Sky and Discovery over access to 12 television channels, including Eurosport, has been resolved after the two companies signed an agreement.

The deal means the channels will continue to be available on Sky and paid-for online service Now TV from today.

Exact details of the agreement have not been revealed.

Eurosport, which became Europe’s official Olympic Games broadcaster on January 1, stations 1 and 2 were among the 12 channels at the centre of a public row involving Sky and parent-company Discovery Communications.

Had a deal not been agreed, all Discovery channels would have been removed from Sky TV subscriptions from today.

“We want to thank our millions of viewers and fans for their overwhelming support over the last few days,” Susanna Dinnage, managing director of Discovery Networks UK, said.

“We have been humbled by the strength of the passion people feel for all our brands, including Discovery Channel, Eurosport, TLC, Animal Planet and Investigation Discovery.

“We have reached a new agreement that guarantees Sky’s customers access to Discovery’s wide range of channels and programmes for years to come. 

“Our fans’ voices were heard loud and clear. 

“They want choice and great TV and I cannot stress how much we love them for their support.”

Discovery had initially claimed that Sky was refusing to pay a "fair price" considering rising viewership.

They had also been running adverts claiming that Sky are more interested in paying huge fees to show English Premier League football rather than other sports.

They said that their fees are less than they received a decade ago despite a 20 per cent rise in viewing figures.

Sky, however, dispute this "completely unrealistic" demand and say they have been "overpaying Discovery for years".

The impasse sparked concern that coverage of both Summer and Winter Olympic sports on Sky would be restricted.

World and European Athletics Championships, for which rights are partly or fully shared with the BBC, and major tournaments and stage races in tennis and cycling are also shown on the channel.

Eurosport holds live rights for the Australian Open, French Open and US Open tennis Grand Slams.

It also screens Giro d'Italia and Vuelta a España cycling races, as well as sharing live daily coverage of the Tour de France with ITV.

A total of 24 races on the International Cycling Union World Tour are also shown live on Eurosport.

Winter sport would also have been hit hard, with skiing World Cup and World Championships events due to be screened live until 2020-2021.

Discovery and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) unveiled a landmark €1.3 billion (£926 million/$1.5 billion) deal in 2015 for Eurosport to broadcast the next two Olympic cycles.