Thursday, December 11, 2008

USA Today on the US TV Rights Negotiations

USA Today goes into more depth about the negotiations for the Olympic US TV Rights:

They sum it up well:

TV profits are, of course, largely a product of advertising revenue, and all that money is the backbone of the Olympic movement's financial statement.

TV rights made up 53 percent of the IOC's revenues from 2001-2004, and the percentage figures to be around the same for the four-year period ending in 2008. NBC paid $894 million to televise this year's Beijing Games, more than double what the European Broadcasting Union paid to televise the games to the entire continent. Chinese television, meanwhile, paid $7 million.

Given its huge financial stake in the games, NBC negotiated with Olympic organizers to move some high-profile swimming and gymnastics events to the morning in China so they could be televised in prime time in America.

Although such an arrangement might be possible if the Olympics go overseas again, most signs point toward American bidders paying more to televise an Olympics on their home turf, where scheduling changes would not have to be made and where the hype would be more easily felt.

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