IOC awards Spanish TV rights to RTVE for 2014, 2016 Olympics for $100 million

Spanish TV secures Olympic rights for $100M

LONDON — Spanish public broadcaster RTVE secured national broadcast rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics on Friday in a deal worth $100 million, another revenue boost for the IOC during the global recession.

The International Olympic Committee said RTVE was awarded the rights across all platforms, including free television, subscription TV, radio, Internet and mobile phones.

The agreement covers the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi, Russia, and 2016 Summer Olympics, whose host city will be selected by the IOC next month from finalists Chicago, Madrid, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

Financial terms were not announced, but an Olympic official with direct knowledge of the deal told The Associated Press the contract was worth just over $100 million. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because contract figures are not announced.

It’s the first time the IOC has negotiated rights directly in Spain, and brings the total in European rights fees to date for 2014 and 2016 to about $692 million.

“We are delighted to be continuing our relationship with RTVE, who have done a fantastic job for many years promoting the magic of the Olympic Games across Spain and helping to promote Olympic sports,” IOC president Jacques Rogge said in a statement.

Because of the economic downturn, the IOC postponed negotiations on the lucrative U.S. rights until sometime after the Oct. 2 vote on the 2016 host city.

The IOC last year broke off its long-standing deal with the European Broadcasting Union, an umbrella body of public broadcasters that had held Olympic rights for more than 50 years.

In February, the IOC awarded European rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics to the Sportfive marketing agency in a deal worth $342 million. That agreement covered 40 countries in Europe.

Separate deals with Sky Italia in Italy and FOX Turkey brought in an additional $250 million.

The IOC is still negotiating individual rights deals in three big markets — Germany, Britain and France — and hopes to surpass a total for Europe of $1.2 billion. That would be a big increase on the $800 million from the current deal with the EBU for the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.

Last week, the IOC awarded the 2014 and 2016 broadcast rights in Brazil to TV Globo and two other companies in a deal worth $210 million.