IOC Inks Deal With Sportfive For Euro Olympic Broadcast Rights

By Tripp Mickle, Staff Writer, SportsBusiness Journal

The IOC announced today the sale of its '14 and '16 Olympic broadcast rights in 40 European territories to European sports marketing agency Sportfive. The agency will pay $312.5M for the rights and will seek a return on its investment by sublicensing out the rights to broadcast partners in nations like Russia (which has the Games in '14), Greece, Ireland, Portugal and elsewhere. The deal excludes rights in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey and the U.K. The IOC negotiations were led by IOC VP Thomas Bach and IOC Dir of Television & Marketing Services Timo Lumme. The agreement with Sportfive signifies the end of the 50-year partnership the IOC had with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), which had held IOC rights in 56 countries. The EBU paid $746M for IOC rights to the '10 Vancouver and '12 London Olympic Games. The IOC hopes to increase European rights fees by more than 30% to approximately $1B for the '14 Sochi Games and '16 Olympics. Already, the IOC has collected $531M, including $312.5M from Sportfive, $190M from Sky Italia in Italy and $28.75 from Fox Turkey. It still has rights to negotiate in four of Europe's wealthiest nations -- France, Germany, Spain and the U.K.