At the end of FS ice dance broadcast Sigi Heinrich stated that in Germany the Olympic figure skating competitions will be shown on TLC (free TV).
Interesting. Now that I've heard this, I expect that DMAX will also be utilised during the Olympics, since it is also Free To Air in Germany.
In the British Isles, DMAX (men's programming) and TLC (women's programming) are both subscription channels. But, Discovery have two Free To Air "taster channels": Quest (men's programming) and Quest Red (women's programming).
Quest is already used sometimes for overspill from Eurosport (mostly snooker and superbikes). So, it would make sense to make use of it and Quest Red during the Olympics.
But, four channels (ESP1, ESP2, DMAX/Quest, and TLC/Quest Red) still won't be enough to show everything.
So, that is why I think that the BBC and Discovery will end up utilising the UKTV network that they will soon jointly own, where 5 out of the 10 channels are Free To Air.
CaroLiza_fan
P.S. Since RTÉ is only vailable in Ireland (North and South), Sky sold the EPG slots that RTÉ uses in NI to Discovery last year, so that Discovery can use them in GB. And Discovery then re-organised their channels so as to move those channels that were buried near the bottom of the Entertainment section to these higher EPG slots.
Consequently, we in Northern Ireland can't get Quest Red on Sky!
But, we can get Quest Red on terrestrial TV, so that's something.