NBC deal secures IOC finances for decade - Carrion

DURBAN, South Africa, July 8 (Reuters) - NBC Universal’s $4.38 billion deal for the U.S. broadcast rights of the Olympics has secured the movement’s financial future for the rest of the decade, the International Olympic Committee’s Richard Carrion said on Friday.

NBC Universal, which is controlled by Comcast Corp and has broadcast every summer Olympics since 1988 and every winter edition since 2002, acquired the rights in June for four Games from 2014 to 2020 in the biggest single TV deal in the IOC’s history.
“The fact that we have this deal is very good,” IOC Executive Board member Carrion, the chief negotiator of the deal, told Reuters during an IOC meeting in Durban.
“It gives us a solid basis. From a financial perspective it assures financial security of the Olympic movement for the rest of the decade.”
The American network beat out rivals Fox and ESPN during a bidding process in Lausanne last month.
Carrion, a Puerto Rican who also heads the IOC’s Finance Commission, said NBC Universal had added a multi-million dollar incentive if the IOC opted for the unusually long four-Games bid instead of just a two-Games contract.
“It was clever of NBC to add a $100 million-plus incentive to move towards a four-Games deal,” Carrion said.
NEW MEDIA
Apart from mobile phone, TV and internet rights, NBC also controls those for media that may be developed in the future.
“What has been the game-changer has been the ipad,” said Carrion.
“They may have sold less than 50 million worldwide but it gives you a flavour (of things to come). We are starting to get more and more of these devices out. Over the next three years it will become more ubiquitous.”
Carrion said broadcasters had also realised the internet and on-line forms of pitching the Games to consumers could be used to their advantage instead of being viewed as a possible liability.
“There was a fear from broadcasters that putting it (Games) on the internet would leak value. Clearly that is not.
“People using the internet are more intense viewers of the (Olympic) broadcast,” he said.
Carrion said what broadcasters now needed to do was to turn new media into sources of revenues, adding that Comcast was well-placed to manage this transition.
“How do you integrate broadcasts with other platforms and how do you monetise that?” he said.
“NBC are very happy with the result and Comcast understands distribution very well.”
Carrion, considered a likely contender for the IOC presidency when current chief Jacques Rogge steps down in 2013, declined to make his intentions known.
“I am flattered by this but now is not the time,” he said.
“After the London 2012 Games is the time to talk about this,” he said, leaving a door open for a possible bid for the top Olympic job.