Sources "familiar with the situation" said that IBM "is
leaning toward running Olympic-theme advertising only in
Australia," according to AD AGE. IBM, which is in the final
year of its TOP partnership with the IOC, "typically ran as
many as five Games-oriented" TV spots and six print ads in
North America, "tying its brand" to the Games. This year,
the company "is considering running" non-Olympic, e-business
ads in North America during the Games (AD AGE, 4/24 issue).
NOTES: The AUSTRALIAN's John Lehmann reported that an
"analysis" conducted by the paper found that SOCOG is
"poised to reap about" A$85M, "almost half their outstanding
domestic ticket budget," by selling tickets to events "they
wrongly claimed were sold out." Lehmann: "Despite the
prospect of the relatively easy extra [A]$85 million, SOCOG
must still raise another [A]$115 million to avoid a ticket
budget shortfall" (AUSTRALIAN, 4/27)....The IOC announced
that the 28 Summer Olympic Int'l Federations "will receive a
total of" $161.2M from TV and marketing revenues from the
Sydney Games. The total "is nearly double" the $88.6M
received from the Atlanta Games (USA TODAY, 4/21)....In Salt
Lake City, Mike Gorrell writes that FBI and Justice
Department investigators questioned senior U.S. IOC member
Anita DeFrantz for three hours on April 12 "about her
knowledge of gifts bestowed by the Salt Lake Bid Committee
in its pursuit" of the 2002 Winter Olympics. DeFrantz
attorney Richard Oparil said that the line of questioning
"did not suggest DeFrantz was a suspect" in the 16-month-old
investigation (SALT LAKE TRIBUNE, 4/27).