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.
