NBC Secures U.S. Olympic TV Rights Through '20 With $4.38B Bid

NBC secured the rights to four Olympic Games from '14-20 with a whopping $4.38B bid that does not include the expected $200M TOP sponsorship from GE. IOC Exec Committee Member Richard Carrion said that GE would negotiate its sponsorship separately. Carrion: "We hope to reach an extension of the TOP deal shortly." NBC’s bid for four Games is nearly $1B higher than the $3.4B bid Fox presented. Fox ($1.5B) and ESPN ($1.4B) also presented bids for the '14 and '16 Games, sources said. The Games will cost NBC $775M in '14, $1.226B in '16, $963M in '18 and $1.418B in '20.

The amount NBC has committed to pay is significant, considering that it will be the first time a U.S. rightsholder would have paid a multibillion-dollar rights fee without the USOC planning to bid to host an Olympic Games. In '03, the last time the IOC sold the rights, N.Y. was bidding to host the '12 Olympics that London eventually won. As of now, the USOC does not plan to go forward with a bid for '20. It is currently focused on renegotiating its revenue-sharing agreement with the IOC. The two have been locked in negotiations over the USOC's 12.75% share of U.S. TV rights and 16% of worldwide sponsorships for the last three years.

Importantly, NBC Sports Chair Mark Lazarus said that the network will turn a page on its history of tape delays to offer every event live "on one platform or another." NBC plans to continue packaging some events for primetime in an effort to "garner the most viewers, the biggest groups, the shared experience of families coming together to watch the Olympic Games."

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