LONDON, Feb 1 — Discovery Communications Inc struck a last-minute deal to keep TLC, Animal Planet and 10 other channels from going dark for 5.5 million Sky Plc TV customers in the UK.

All of Discovery’s 12 channels will continue to be available to Sky customers, including its flagship Discovery Channel, Eurosport and DMAX, and the Discovery Channel will continue to be available on NOW TV in the UK. Those networks would have become unavailable in the first seconds today if the two companies didn’t agree on new terms granting Sky rights to Discovery’s programming.

Shares of Discovery rose as much as 2.5 per cent to US$28.68 (RM127.03) after the announcement, and were trading at US$28.34 at 3.18pm in New York.

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

The agreement includes Discovery’s four pay-TV channels in Germany: Discovery Channel, Eurosport 1 HD, Eurosport 2 HD and Eurosport 360 HD, according to Discovery.

While the two companies said they reached an agreement, they still couldn’t agree on who was forced to compromise. In a statement, Sky said the deal "has been concluded on the right terms after Discovery accepted the proposal we gave them over a week ago.”

A Discovery spokesman, meanwhile, responded by saying the agreement was "meaningfully better” than the former one as well as Sky’s proposal.

"Furthermore, our new arrangement enables us to control our destiny in more ways, with even more opportunities to invest and launch channels and consumer services,” Discovery said in a statement.

Murdoch’s plan

Disputes between TV networks and distributors are common, and they occasionally reach a stalemate as both sides try to negotiate better deals. Discovery, on a growth spurt in Europe, has been demanding more money in fees from distributors like Sky to make up for a loss of subscribers and stalled advertising growth in the US.

Adding to the intrigue in this standoff is 21st Century Fox Inc’s deal to acquire Sky, as billionaire Rupert Murdoch seeks to consolidate his television empire across two continents. Fox owns cable networks that compete directly against Discovery, such as Fox UK and National Geographic Channel, which Sky had attacked as having low viewership.

Sky, Europe’s dominant pay-TV company, provides satellite-TV service to 21.8 million customers across the UK, Ireland, Italy, Germany and Austria. — Bloomberg