The long-delayed negotiations on Olympic television rights in the United States should begin by early next year, IOC president Jacques Rogge said today.
Rogge told The Associated Press that the International Olympic Committee is now ready to move because of signs of improvement in the U.S. economic situation and advertising market.
Rogge said he expects a half dozen media companies to bid for the lucrative rights, and singled out Fox as a potential contender.
At stake are the exclusive broadcast rights to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. U.S. rights represent the biggest single source of income for the Olympic movement.
The U.S. negotiations had been postponed in 2009 because of the global financial crisis. The IOC then planned to seek a deal after the Winter Olympics in February, but the talks were put off again.
“We will most likely start negotiations either at the end of this year or in the beginning of next year,” Rogge said. “The economy is improving, and the economy is definitely the major factor for which we waited.
“We now see signals and we hear from our partners in the advertising world that advertising is coming up. So we are waiting for that to negotiate.”
Rogge said he expects bids from “all the major players in the United States.” That would include Olympic incumbent NBC, CBS and Turner, ESPN-ABC and Fox.
In 2003, NBC outbid Fox and ESPN-ABC to secure the rights to the Vancouver Games and 2012 London Olympics in a deal worth US$2.2 billion. NBC reported losses of $223 million on the Vancouver Games in the first quarter. In addition, Comcast–the largest cable TV provider in the U.S.–is still seeking regulatory approval of a deal to buy a controlling stake in NBC Universal from parent company General Electric Co.
“I would hope we could discuss with Fox,” Rogge said. “We already had a bid from Fox in 2003, hopefully there will be one in 2010 or 2011.”
The IOC has already agreed with two other Fox networks in Italy and Turkey that are part of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. media group.
