Lutz Appeal: NBC To Air '09 World Figure Skating Championships

NBC To Air '09 World Figure Skating Championships

NBC has agreed to broadcast the ’09 World Figure Skating Championships, which will take place in L.A., according to sources cited by Philip Hersh of the CHICAGO TRIBUNE. Terms were not available, and NBC did not confirm the deal. However, the net “looks at the event as a way to begin building interest in its coverage” of the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. ESPN’s four-year, $20M deal with the Int’l Skating Union (ISU) expires after this year’s world championships in Sweden next month. ISU President Ottavio Cinquanta last year said that he “would give away the rights, if necessary, to ensure a U.S. telecast” of the ’09 event. Hersh notes the deal “apparently does not include the foreign Grand Prix events,” which ESPN had aired (CHICAGO TRIBUNE, 2/6).