IOC President Thomas Bach today said the governing body decided to sign a long-term extension with NBC rather than sell its Olympic rights on the open market because it trusts the broadcaster and felt the deal offered financial stability for the next two decades. His comments came shortly after the IOC and NBC Sports finalized a $7.65B deal for the ’22-32 Olympics. The deal represents a 15% increase on average for each Olympic Games from NBC’s current agreement, a $4.38B deal for the ’14-20 Olympics. However, the increase is below that seen by many major sports properties in the U.S., which have been closer to 40%. Bach said that was not the main issue for the IOC.
Olympic officials noted that NBC in '11 outbid its closest competitors, Fox and ESPN, for the Olympic rights by more than $1B. Bach said, “This kind of deal is not only about money. Maybe in one deal you can have one or more dollars more and have your product destroyed. We are thinking long term in the IOC. ... The balance has to be there between the protection of the Games, the promotion of our values and financial consideration.” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said that deal ensured NBC would continue to build on its successful broadcasts of the ’12 London and ’14 Sochi Games, which were the first to take place under Comcast ownership. He noted that both of those events were “profitable.”
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Bach said the IOC first discussed the possibility of doing a long-term deal over dinner with NBC Olympics President
Gary Zenkel in N.Y. last November. He met with Roberts about it in Sochi in February, and the parties signed the deal today. In addition to the rights to the IOC agreement, NBC negotiated a separate deal with the USOC for rights to the ‘22-32 Olympic Trials. Financial terms of that deal were not disclosed, but USOC CEO
Scott Blackmun said it was a considerable increase from the current agreement. Blackmun said, “We all saw this as a long-term partnership where we didn’t have to worry about auctions.”
Bach also has commissioned a study of the viability of an Olympic network, but he said that the deal with NBC does not contemplate creating one in the U.S. He added, “We will wait for this feasibility study (for a network to be done), and see where to take it from there.” The new IOC-NBC deal breaks down by each quadrennial to be: $2.5B for ’22 and ’24; $2.55B for ’26 and ’28; and $2.60B for ’30 and ’32.
