US Olympic Committee TV flap

I keep hoping the eyebrow's really his.

 

That's not going to happen.
There's this little $5.7 billion issue. NBC (parent GE) has paid for exclusive rights in the United States for the Olympics throught 2012. Pretty sure, in this economy, the IOC won't want to fuck with that.

 

Only if it's on the Big Ten Network.

 

And, as somebody noted, anything a USOC network would want to show, NBC has the rights to, and puts on the Universal Sports channel (which is a broadcast channel in our market, and a handful of other major and mid-major markets in the country).

Universal Sports was re-running a lot of Beijing Olympics coverage a couple of weeks ago.

 

NBC has the rights to Olympic footage that was shot by ABC and CBS when they carried the Games?

 

I would think this was something that could be worked out with NBC. They would get money from showing programs over, and this would promote NBC Olympic coverage. I think it could be a win-win for the USOC and NBC

 

Exclusive rights. They have their own cable channel. Almost $6 billion.
What's so hard to understand?

 

Woo hoo! Team handball!

 

In at NY Times story today, Dick Ebersol says he and Juan Antonio Samaranch talked in 1999 about starting an Olympic channel in the U.S. that would eventually span the globe. NBC did a survey. About one-tenth of one percent of those surveyed were interested, and the plan was abandoned. I'm guessing USON will turn into USOFF.

 

Don't knock handball. It's extremely fun to watch live and looks like it would be a blast to play.

 

Just ask Jake Plummer. It's what he does now that he's retired.

 

But NBC has Universal Sports, which does exactly what the USOC channel would do ... show the U.S. championships and World Championships in various sports, and lots of skiing, luge, curling, track, cycling, triathlon, marathon ... It's a 24/7 sports channel that is over the air (usually as an X.2 or X.3 digital channel) in many major markets.