World Rowing has extended its European media rights partnership with the EBU through 2032, keeping the sport free-to-air across key markets and adding Beach Sprints coverage as the discipline builds toward its Los Angeles 2028 Olympic debut.
The European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and World Rowing have renewed their European media rights agreement from 2025 through the end of 2032, continuing a relationship that dates back to the early 1980s.
The package covers the World Rowing Championships, European Rowing Championships and the World Rowing Cup series, and adds the World Rowing Beach Sprint Finals for the first time.
Thirteen EBU Members are included in the deal, with six committing through 2032, among them ARD/ZDF (Germany), RAI (Italy), RTVE (Spain), NOS (Netherlands), RTE (Ireland) and Suspilne Ukraine. Coverage is cleared across linear television and all digital platforms, with Eurovision Sport set to stream the events in parallel to public service broadcasters.
World Rowing says the agreement provides more latitude to activate its own digital rights, aiming to reach “existing and new audiences” beyond traditional regatta-going fans.
For the federation, that is timely: Beach Sprint Rowing, a short, made-for-spectators coastal format, will make its Olympic debut at LA28, with the discipline positioned as a growth engine for the sport.
The 2025 calendar underscores both pillars of the strategy. Shanghai hosts the World Rowing Championships from September 21–28, before the Beach Sprint Finals in Antalya from November 6–9, giving broadcasters and streaming platforms a clear runway to build narratives from elite flatwater racing to the emerging coastal product.
Why it matters for rights and reach
For the EBU, the renewal extends a run of 2025 rights activity across Olympic and federation properties, including new or extended agreements with European Aquatics, European Gymnastics, FIBA and the UCI.
It also complements the EBU–Warner Bros. Discovery arrangement that secured European Olympic rights from 2026–2032, helping public service broadcasters maintain a pipeline of Olympic-adjacent content in the years between Games.
For World Rowing, long-term free-to-air exposure is a sponsor-friendly message in markets where the sport competes with crowded summer calendars. The specific inclusion of Beach Sprints should help accelerate audience testing and commercial storytelling around a discipline designed for television, highlights and social clips, rather than solely 2,000-metre course specialists.
Rowing is not a ubiquitous media staple, but this deal gives it three advantages that matter in 2025’s rights economy: guaranteed reach on PSBs, parallel distribution on Eurovision Sport, and room for the federation to build its own digital presence as Beach Sprints moves toward LA28.
If the coastal format converts casual viewers, the 2032 horizon gives rights-holders and sponsors time to capitalise.
