/ 11.12.2009 12:00AM
ESPN Scores Rights to Broadcast Olympics in South America
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND: ESPN has bought the
South American broadcast rights to the Vancouver and London Olympic Games,
press reports indicate. The deal was announced today by the International
Olympic Committee. The price paid was not disclosed, and it excludes Brazil.
ESPN won the rights over the Iberoamericana TV Organization, which has handled
the South American rights since 1992. That organization was said to have paid
$29.75 million for the 2006 Turn and the 2008 Beijing Games.
ESPN’s rights cover free and pay-TV in Argentina, and pay TV in several other
countries, as well as satellite-only rights in Venezuala.
The Vancouver Games are scheduled for mid-February, 2010; the London Games will
be played in 2012.
More on the Vancouver Games:
June
23, 2009: “NBC Takes Aim at
Olympics Piracy”
NBC Universal is lining up lawyers to fight any copyright violations of its
planned coverage of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada. Concerns were
fired when Canadian copyright law landed the country on a U.S. Trade
Representative priority watch list.