RAI loses 2010 Winter Olympics & 2012 Olympics

Analoguesat

The International Olympic Committee has awarded the broadcast rights for the 2010 winter Olympics in Vancouver and 2012 Olympics in London to pay-TV company Sky Italia, overlooking Rai, the traditional broadcaster of the Olympic Games in Italy.

The rights awarded to Sky Italia, the satellite broadcaster owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, cover all platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, the Internet and mobile phones, Sportcal.com reports. The broadcaster will have to provide a guarantee of free-to-air coverage and, with this in mind, will shortly begin negotiations to secure a suitable partner, which could be Rai.

The move to award the rights to a pay-TV broadcaster is likely to be regarded as controversial, despite the IOC’s assurances that Sky Italia will seek to sublicense free-to-air rights, because it takes control of the rights away from the IOC itself. Sky Italia could arguably be in a position in due course to claim that it has tried and failed to obtain what it believes to be a fair market rate for the rights from a free-to-air broadcaster, and therefore can broadcast the games exclusively on pay TV.

IOC Vice-President Thomas Bach, who led the negotiations, said: “Sky Italia has demonstrated an unrivalled commitment to the Olympic Games and the Olympic values that will allow sports fans in Italy the chance to see more Olympic sport than ever before, not only on Sky Italia’s exciting subscription channel platforms, but also on a full range of digital media outlets and on free-to-air television.”

Rai was the domestic broadcaster of the last winter Olympics, held in Turin in 2006, and will televise this year’s summer games from Beijing. However, it was controversially excluded from a 2004 deal between the IOC and the European Broadcasting Union, covering the 2010 and 2012 games, after failing to reach agreement with other members of the EBU over the size of the financial guarantee it should pay.

The broadcaster is also believed to have insisted that the EBU offer should be conditional on the 2012 event taking place in Europe. The games were subsequently awarded to London, which finished ahead of Paris, Madrid, New York and Moscow in an IOC vote.
The deal with the EBU was worth 614 million Euros (US$910 million), but it was estimated that it could have been worth up to US$100 million more if Italy was included.

(Source: Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union)

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Salty25

Why don't the IOC make a massive sign of drawing of a middle finger with the title "Italia!" in Beijing?

They may as well have.

I suppose these are the same 'Olympic ideals' which insure, because NBC basically fund the Games, that the USA host every third Summer Games.

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Analoguesat

Its a nasty precedent although I think here in the UK the Olympics are one of the protected sports so have to be shown fta

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