The IOC will open bidding for Olympic TV rights Monday at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The IOC offices are located on the shore of Lake Geneva, and networks will make their presentations in a conference room at the offices. Fox will make the first presentation. ESPN will follow Tuesday morning, and NBC will round out the list of U.S. bidders on Tuesday afternoon. The IOC has encouraged the nets to make two bids: one for the '14 Sochi and '16 Rio de Janeiro Games, and one for the '14, '16, '18 and '20 Games. IOC leaders have said they expect a bid for the '14 and '16 Games that exceeds the $2.2B NBC is currently paying for the '10 Vancouver and '12 London Games (Mickle & Ourand, SportsBusiness Journal). Collins Stewart analyst Thomas Eagan indicated that Comcast will likely enter "carefully and prudently into the bidding next week,” leaving Fox and ESPN “in a better position to take home the gold.” Meanwhile, CBS President & CEO Les Moonves said that his net “won’t even enter a bid because the Games are ‘not a cost effective thing for us.’” But he added, “Having premiere sports helps our retrans argument” (CABLEFAX DAILY, 6/3). In California, John Maffei writes under the header, “Ebersol’s Departure Leaves TV Home Of Olympics Wide Open.” ESPN and Fox have “both been throwing cash around like crazy lately in gaining rights to nearly all the big-time sports in the U.S.” And ESPN “proved it could cover an event of world interest with its coverage of the 2010 World Cup” (NORTH COUNTY TIMES, 6/3).
THE COMPETITORS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Vascellaro & Futterman cite sources as saying that NBCUniversal is “drawing from the same playbook it used to win rights to televise eight of the past 10 Olympics.” That playbook “emphasizes its Olympics legacy and devotion to storytelling, which the network says brings in women viewers.” NBC also “plans to highlight the Comcast side of the house, with its suite of cable channels and video-on-demand technology.” The bid is the "first big test for the new NBCU regime" led by President & CEO Steve Burke, who “is making sports one of his top priorities.” Sources said that ESPN is “planning to pitch the idea of showing more events live and will play up its appeal among young men.” The sources added that the cable network “plans to point to its coverage of the FIFA World Cup last year as evidence of the attention it can command from U.S. fans.” Meanwhile, sources said that Fox, the “most popular network in prime time among U.S. viewers age 18-49, is planning to play up its appeal among younger Americans.” Vascellaro & Futterman write “all that pitching probably won't matter as much as the key deciding fact: Who is willing to pay the most.” Meanwhile, a source said that NBCU “has already negotiated surcharges for its channels with some distributors if it secures the rights to Games beyond 2012” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 6/3).
MAKING THE BID: AROUND THE RINGS’ Karen Rosen notes IOC Finance Commission Chair Richard Carrion and IOC President Jacques Rogge “have made it clear they hope to exceed” NBC’s $2.2B deal for the rights to the ’10 Vancouver and ’12 London Games. While the IOC “will make the decision following the two-hour presentations from Fox, ESPN/ABC and NBC/Comcast, it cannot accept the winning bid without the consent of the USOC, which controls the use of the Olympic rings in the U.S.” USOC Chair Larry Probst, CEO Scott Blackmun, General Counsel and Chief of Legal & Government Affairs Rana Dershowitz and Chief Communications Officer Patrick Sandusky “will be in the room for presentations” from the three networks. Precedence “suggests they will also witness the opening of the sealed envelopes containing the bids, as have other USOC delegations at past TV rights showdowns.” Meanwhile, Rosen cites sources that “believe ESPN is the odds-on favorite, with its four networks and guaranteed subscription fees,” while Fox “is a wild card.” Other industry sources believe that NBC “is the front-runner" (AROUNDTHERINGS.com, 6/3).
