The Olympics are returning home to Seven. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded its Australian media rights for around the next decade to the Seven Network.
Under the unprecedented new agreement, Seven will broadcast:
- the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro in 2016;
- the XXIII Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang in 2018; and
- the Games of the XXXII Olympiad in Tokyo in 2020.
Seven will also broadcast this year’s Summer Youth Olympic Games in Nanjing, which begin in less than two weeks’ time. Seven will broadcast a daily highlights package of the Nanjing games.
The IOC’s new partnership with Seven may extend beyond 2020, with Seven securing an option to broadcast the XXIV Olympic Winter Games in 2022 and the XXXIII Olympic Games in 2024.
Seven’s agreement with the IOC delivers includes the following media rights:
- free-to-air broadcast television rights;
- subscription television rights;
- digital rights, including online and Hybrid Broadband Broadcast Television; and
- radio broadcasting rights.
Seven’s press release notes that “over the coming decade, Seven will create and deliver the most comprehensive, technologically advanced, multi-platform coverage of the Olympic Games to all Australians on any communications device.” This is exciting news for Olympics fans and will no doubt build on the fantastic digital coverage offered by Foxtel for Vancouver 2010 and London 2012, and Ten’s multi-platform coverage of Sochi 2014.
Kerry Stokes, Chairman of Seven West Media, said:
“The Olympic Games has been a key part of Seven’s history and development. I am extraordinarily proud of our long partnership with the IOC and the Olympic movement, and look forward to our partnership with the Olympic Games as we define and build our media presence over the coming decade.”
In what seems to be a new trend for sports rights acquisitions, Seven’s agreement with the IOC is more of a partnership than a broadcast agreement, with Australia’s most watched broadcast television platform making an unprecedented commitment over the course of the deal to support the IOC’s goals. This commitment includes promoting Olympism, Olympic sports, health, education and youth sport across Seven’s media platforms, including its television network, newspapers, magazines and online media.
Seven, which has not broadcast an Olympics since Beijing 2008, replaces Ten as the incumbent Olympics broadcaster in Australia and joins the like of the BBC in Britain and Comcast’s NBCUniversal in the USA in becoming long-term broadcast partners of the IOC. NBCUniversal’s rights deal with the IOC (signed in May) will run until 2032 and is valued at USD $7.65 billion, plus an additional USD $100 million signing bonus to be used for the promotion of Olympism and the Olympic values between 2015 and 2020.
Australia’s Olympic Network is once again the Seven Network.
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