International Olympics Committee (IOC) deal makers will spend two days in Sydney this week meeting with the country’s largest commercial television networks about broadcasting the next group of events, including the Brisbane 2032 Games.
Media sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said executives at Nine Entertainment Co, Seven West Media and Paramount had arrangements to meet with two key stakeholders from the IOC. The prospective deal would include the Paris 2024 Olympics, the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics and the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, as well as the Winter Olympic Games over this period.
Patty Mills embraces teammate Joe Ingles at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.Credit:AP
Nine, Seven and Paramount are expecting to host the executives, including Anne-Sophie Voumard, the president of broadcast and media rights for IOC television and marketing services, for lunch or dinner, the sources said, as well as conduct presentations. No binding or non-binding offers for the rights are expected to be made this week. Nine, Seven and Paramount declined to comment.
Seven and Nine were joint broadcasters of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, which was the first to be televised in Australia. Since then, Seven has been the preeminent broadcaster, televising events in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Seven briefly lost the rights from 2010 to 2014 to rival broadcasters Nine (the owner of this masthead), Network Ten (now owned by Paramount) and Foxtel before signing a deal from 2016 to 2020.
Nine, which flew Today Show host Karl Stefanovic to Switzerland for a pitch for the rights in April, wants to secure the rights to all games until 2032 in Brisbane. It is unclear if Seven is interested in acquiring a package for multiple games, or if it wants to buy just the Paris 2024 Games and the Milan 2026 Winter Olympics. Sources close to the talks suggested Paramount is not interested in securing a long-term deal given the media market is constantly changing and audiences are increasingly watching sports content online.
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Olympic Games are usually a loss-making event for a television network. In 2017, Seven wrote down the value of the games by $70 million (the original deal was reported to be worth $200 million). And, despite it breaking audience records in 2021, the Tokyo 2020 Games still led to a $50 million loss for the network.
The IOC is the last major sporting body to try and secure a lucrative broadcast deal from this market and the arrival of its key broadcast executives coincides with negotiations between Cricket Australia and the local television and streaming networks for a new broadcast rights deal.
The Australian reported on Saturday the interested cricket bidders - Nine, Seven West Media, Paramount (and its free-to-air network Ten) and Foxtel have been asked to resubmit bids for the cricket rights following a request from the sporting body. The bids are due 5pm on Thursday, according to people familiar with the matter.









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