Reel won Olympic contract

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Reel Enterprises, a small UK company, has won the contract to market the TV rights to the Olympics globally. Headed by David Kogan, a former Reuters and Granada executive who also represents the Premier League, Reel will sell TV rights to the 2010 and 2012 winter and summer Olympics around the world.

This move could signal a shake-up in the International Olympic Committee's long established practice of selling Olympic rights to the European broadcasting union, which negotiates collectively for all European public service broadcasters, including the BBC, the Guardian newspaperreported.

Although the Olympics are protected under UK legislation and can only be screened by a terrestrial broadcaster unless express permission is given by regulators, it heralds a new-found commercialism at the heart of the organisation.