Rogge calls for a change to Olympic TV rights deal with USOC
121st IOC SessionSummer Sports0 Wednesday 7th October 2009
IOC President Jacques Rogge has hit out at an existing television rights deal with the US Olympic Committee, claiming it no longer reflects the current situation.
TIME FOR A CHANGE: IOC President Jacques Rogge believes existing TV deal must be changed
:eek:At present, the USOC receives 12.75 percent of Olympic television rights fees and 20 percent of global marketing revenues - because of the involvement of US companies - in an open-ended contract.
The IOC generates more than half of its revenues from television rights and deals with the USA tend to be worth more than the rest of the world combined.
US broadcaster NBC paid $2.2bn for the 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Games and in 1995 paid $3.5bn for the five Olympics between 2000 and 2008.
But the fact that the USOC receives a larger cut than the rest of the world put together is a sore point among IOC members, and Rogge revealed the current contract will be scrutinised in 2013.
“As you know there is a contract in place which the IOC signed with the US Olympic Committee, who receive 12.75 per cent of TV revenues,” he said.
"But the Olympic Movement feels this no longer reflects the situation today.
"We have been able to reach an agreement with the USOC to renegotiate the contract in 2013 with regards to the revenues in 2020.
“The USOC is also looking into setting up its own TV channel but they have agreed to delay any thoughts of this until after a comprehensive study has been done.”
The fact that the existing deal is so heavily weighted in the USOC’s favour, was arguably a key contributing factor in Chicago’s dramatic failure in their bid to win the right to host the 2016 Games.
Rio’s victory was just as dramatic but with the TV rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics yet to be sold in the USA Chicago’s defeat is likely to drive the price down.
But Rogge stood by the IOC’s decision to delay the sale of the rights in the USA, and defended the new strategy.
“We are no longer giving the rights exclusively to one partner,” he added. [b]"But in all cases the IOC will continue to drive free to air broadcast rights as a priority.
“This allows us to maximise the TV audience as well as utilising new multimedia platforms.”[/b]