China Medal Haul Expected To Drive Up Olympic TV Rights Cost
The IOC "expects to reap a 'three-figure' multimillion-dollar television rights deal with China" for the 2010 Vancouver Games and 2012 London Games, according to Jeff Lee of the VANCOUVER SUN. China has been "benefiting from an older TV rights deal in which it received access to IOC feeds for a mere $18.5[M]." However, with the Beijing Games "generating an estimated $400[M] for China's state television CCTV alone, the IOC wants a more lucrative deal." The new China rights package, which is "still under negotiation, appears to be a potential windfall for the IOC, which is benefiting from an extraordinary boost in the profitability of its image." The deal also comes as a "record number of people tune into" the Beijing Games. However, VANOC is "not expected to generate any extra money" from the deal. VANOC officials acknowledged that the "deal they signed with the IOC last year was a fixed price and factored in the expectation that the IOC would get more money from future deals." Officials "would not say whether VANOC will seek to reopen negotiations with the IOC in light of the potential China deal" (VANCOUVER SUN, 8/21). The FINANCIAL TIMES' Roger Blitz reports China is "expected to pay at least 10 times more for broadcasting rights at future [Olympics] than the bargain sum paid for Beijing." Lumme: "Just for China, we have to be looking at well into three figures (in millions of dollars). These are discussions we have to have with China." Lumme added that the IOC "would now negotiate separately with mainland China and Hong Kong for future games rights, and that he expected to extract a sum well in excess of $100[M]." Lumme: "Obviously, times have changed and many of these economies, particularly China and Hong Kong, are growing faster" (FINANCIAL TIMES, 8/21).
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