Olympics TV rights fees

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The Olympic Games generates nearly half its revenue from sales of broadcasting rights. At Vancouver, these fees have grown by 44% over the total in Turin, making them the highest ever for a winter games. But for the broadcasters paying these sums, the Olympics can be a downhill race to recover their investment.

Associated press

Canada's CTV began promoting its programming more than a year ago. The efforts may have worked, at least for ratings. The 10.6 million Canadians who tuned in to see their men's hockey team of loosely to the U.S. in a preliminary made that game the country's most-watched sporting event.

The European Broadcasting Union is maximizing its coverage by airing more than 8,000 hours of programming to 61 TV channels, 17 radio stations and 40 Web sites in countries in and around Europe. Australia's nine network is showing up to nine hours of live daytime coverage. NBC paid a record $820 million for the rights to these Winter Games part of a $2 billion package for the 2010 and 2012 Games. (At press time, the U.S. had won 32 medals, which works out to about $62.5 million in broadcast fees by medal).

At the other end of the spectrum: the Philippines' solar network paid $2 million to provide Olympic coverage to a country of 90 million people.

-Ben Austen

Amount paid for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics broadcasters (winter and summer games are negotiated together).

Source: International Olympic Committee
* European rights were sold jointly

Printed in the Wall Street Journal, page W7

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