Lausanne, June 08: NBC has won the U.S. broadcast rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Games, the International Olympic Committee said on Friday. NBC paid 2.201 billion U.S. dollars for the rights in total. NBC, Fox and ABC handed in official bids to the IOC in Lausanne on Friday (June 6). NBC paid a total of $3.5 billion for the last U.S. broadcasting rights to two Winter Games and three Summer Games, including next year's Olympics in Athens. Those negotiations, under former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch, took place in secret without other networks getting a chance to bid. This time, IOC president Jacques Rogge had pledged an open process giving everyone a chance. Officials from the television networks gathered to deliver their bids in sealed envelopes, after presenting their plans for the games to the IOC officials. CBS pulled out of the bidding earlier this week because of uncertainty over where the 2010 and 2012 Games will be held. Vancouver, Salzburg in Austria and South Korea's Pyeongchang are bidding to host the 2010 Winter Olympics and a decision will be made by the IOC on July 2. The 2012 Olympic decision will be made in 2005. Moscow, Paris, London, Madrid, New York, Havana and Leipzig of Germany have launched official bids.


Speaking before the decision was made, Rogge said the bidding process for the television rights would be "a system that will be open, transparent and fair for everyone and where everyone would be competing against each other".


Bureau Report