As the news comes that NBC won the rights for four Olympic Games from 2014 — 2020, we’re learning quite a bit about the bid process. Stephen Wilson of the Associated Press who broke the story says NBC/Comcast apparently bid more than $4 billion for the four Games, breaking down to about $1.1 billion per Olympiad, but most likely, that contract is backloaded so the revenue distribution is not as even as it looks.
Next, Fox put in a very strong bid. The network also bid for four Games. We don’t know the pricetag yet, but Fox Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill was there right to the end.
We have this statement from Fox Sports through a spokesman:
FOX Sports Media Group Chairman David Hill just received a call from IOC Executive Committee member Richard Carrion who informed him that NBC/Comcast has won the rights to four consecutive Olympic Games beginning 2014.
Said Mr. Hill: “We congratulate NBC/Comcast and would like to thank President Rogge, Richard Carrion and the IOC Executive Committee for giving us the opportunity to participate in the process, demonstrating how FOX Sports would produce the Olympic Games, provide wide distribution, the largest marketing platform ever and an economic package we believed to be good for the IOC and News Corp.”
Very classy words from Fox and Hill.
From Richard Sandomir of the New York Times, we learn that ESPN which was a favorite coming into this bid apparently put in for just two Olympics whereas Fox and NBC went for four. Was it a factor? Most likely as the IOC wanted a long-term commitment.
ESPN has released a rather terse statement on losing the bid.
ESPN Statement Regarding Olympic Bid
“We made a disciplined bid that would have brought tremendous value to the Olympics and would have been profitable for our company. To go any further would not have made good business sense for us. We wish to congratulate the IOC on a fair and transparent process, and we offer our best wishes to Comcast/NBC. We put our best foot forward with a compelling offer that included the enthusiastic participation of all of The Walt Disney Company’s considerable assets.”
Richard tweets that ESPN’s bid for the two games was much lower than the IOC was looking for.
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ESPN’s two-Olympic bid was $1.4Bless than a minute ago via web 
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Richard Sandomir
RichSandomir
Fox’s presentation went about 90 minutes, ESPN’s 70 minutes and NBC’s went over 2 hours. Was it the length of presentation? Probably not, but it shows you how much each network treated this round of bidding. Fox really went for it and came close again. NBC even without Dick Ebersol showed that it was committed to the Olympic movement and that’s what the IOC wanted to hear.
In addition, Comcast got to demonstrate its distribution for these Games, telling the IOC that Versus and Golf Channel would be added to the mix in 2014 and especially 2016 when golf is introduced in Rio. ESPN and Fox can talk about a global reach, but as far as reaching a widespread American audience, Comcast’s networks are right there. In addition, I’m sure there was discussion about TV Everywhere, distributing the Olympics via mobile phones, tablets and laptops. This is a new era and TV while a big part of distribution is not as important as it used to be. This is an era of convenience and it’s all about distributing through mobile devices.
Now regarding concerns about tape delays. London will be on tape. NBC has been planning for that since it won the rights and I’m sure that’s not going to change. However, I do expect that in the post-Dick Ebersol era, NBC will change that philosophy and go live starting in 2014. There will be packaging for primetime, but I think NBC will start going live in Sochi and providing the Olympics online. TV Everywhere was the theme. This was important for Comcast to retain the Olympics especially in the wake of losing the Pac-12 rights to ESPN and Fox.
This shows a big commitment by Comcast and keeps NBC as America’s Olympic Network.
