The AP is reporting that NBC has won the United States’ Olympics television broadcast rights for the next four Games in an announcement made by the International Olympic Committee on Tuesday in Lausanne, Switzerland. NBC was competing with both Fox and ESPN/ABC.
NBC Wins US Olympic Television Rights In Four-Games Deal
In an unprecedented move, the networks were allowed to submit bids for the next four games, and that is exactly what NBC did, winning the rights not only to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, but also the 2018 Winter Olympics and 2020 Summer Games, neither of which currently have a location selected.
The Sports Business Journal's John Ourand predicted earlier in the day that it would be NBC selected as the broadcast network, but the decision is still somewhat surprising. NBC was facing its first Olympics bid process without Dick Ebersol, who resigned last month, and was largely credited with landing broadcast rights for every Summer Games since 1988, and the past three Winter Games. Additionally though, Ebersol is often blamed for drastically over-inflating the cost of Olympics broadcast rights.
It is not yet known what amount NBC bid to win the broadcast rights, though an early report from the AP's Steve Wilson says it's worth more than $4 billion. NBC already has the rights to the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.
See More:
