Fox Kicks Off Bidding For U.S. TV Rights To '14, '16 Olympics

Six representatives from Fox today kicked off the bidding for the U.S. rights to the '14 and '16 Olympics. The group, led by Fox Sports Media Group Chair & CEO David Hill, arrived in a van 40 minutes before their scheduled two-hour presentation at IOC headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. Hill, who was wearing a button-down pink shirt open at the neck, said, "It's eight years to the day we did our last pitch, which is also D-Day." The Fox pitch he referred to was a $1.3B bid in '03 that fell far short of the $2B bid that won NBC the rights to the '10 Vancouver and '12 London Olympics.

The Fox team arrived in Switzerland yesterday. The team included six representatives: Fox Sports Media Group co-President & co-COO Randy Freer, CFO Larry Jones, Exec VP/Research & Programming Bill Wanger, CMO Eric Markgraf and Senior VP/Media Relations Lou D'Ermilio. Hill said the team at Fox was excited about their presentation, but he was understated about the pitch. Hill: "We're just doing a pitch." The IOC will hear presentations from ESPN and NBC tomorrow. It is expected to select a broadcast partner later in the day.

Follow Tripp Mickle's Twitter feed @trippmickle for ongoing updates from the proceedings in Switzerland.