Australia's Three TV Networks In $225M Battle For Future Olympics Rights

A A$250M ($225M) battle for the Australian TV rights for the next three Olympics "is being played out behind the scenes in Sochi," according to John Lehmann of NEWS LIMITED NETWORK. IOC VP John Coates said that Australia’s three TV networks "have expressed strong interest" in bidding for the 2016 Rio, 2018 PyeongChang and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Coates: "It’s all happening as we speak." Ten Chair Lachlan Murdoch and CEO Hamish McLennan "hurried off the ski slopes in Sochi when invited to a private meeting" with IOC President Thomas Bach and his media rights negotiator in the exclusive Olympic Club hospitality complex last week. Coates: "Ten has been very happy with their experience here and Ten like the idea that two of the next three Games are in the same time zone." Coates "declined to speculate on how much the rights would fetch," but sources said that the IOC "was expecting" around A$250M for Australian free-to-air, pay-TV and digital media rights (NEWS LIMITED NETWORK, 2/20).