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Networks coy on Olympics rights

Australian rights for the Olympics are now in jeopardy after three commercial networks decline to make an offer.

2013-04-09_0037Australian rights for the 2014 Winter Olympics and 2016 Olympics are now in jeopardy after three commercial networks have declined to make an offer.

The Australian newspaper reports Seven has withdrawn from the bidding process after the International Olympic Committee called on the network to raise its offer.

It reports Seven was the only firm bidder among the three commercial free-to-airs, after Nine and TEN declined to make an offer.

The reason is due to the losses Nine incurred in London 2012 at the same time as the advertising downturn continues to bite.

For those rights, Nine paid $72m while Foxtel paid $48m and shared facilities.

Nine is understood to have lost around $25m.

While TEN has previously expressed its desire to have key sports, attention has focussed on the bidding for Cricket Australia rights.

But Sochi 2014 is now only 10 months away.

Foxtel declined to comment.

30 Responses

  1. Some people might have to sign too a proxy or VPN and watch the Olympics through other means. Personally I loved Foxtel’s coverage of London and hope they get exclusive rights.

  2. @dylan2012 they certainly need to improve on the rubbish they put forward for the athens and bejing games. foxtel are very interested from what i gather

  3. Well I actually didn’t mind 9’s coverage of the games, but I seem to be the only one. And yeah, I am only interested in watching events if an Aussie is performing. I don’t really care about the race or game if no Aussies are competing in them.

    Someone at 9 when asked said the reason they weren’t shown on the digital channels was because when they got the rights the digital channels weren’t around then so they couldn’t negotiate to have them.

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