Let the games begin - for future Olympic TV rights

NEW YORK - NBC Universal drew a record number of viewers for its coverage of the Beijing Olympics, setting a standard that could have other media companies rethinking their roles in future Games.

Just a day after Sunday's closing ceremony, buzz was already circulating around what companies could be interested in winning the US broadcast rights for the next available Olympics - the 2014 Winter Games and the 2016 Summer Games.

NBC, majority owned by General Electric Co., already has the broadcast rights to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Games and the 2012 London Summer Games, which it secured for about $2 billion.

Bids for future Games should surpass that mark if the International Olympic Committee again combines the 2014 and 2016 Games into one package, experts say. A date has yet to be set for selling those rights.

"The success of Beijing and the anticipated success of Vancouver and London, both of which are very attractive host locations, set the bar for the next round of TV negotiations," said Neal Pilson, former president of CBS Sports and now head of a sports consulting firm in Chappaqua, N.Y.

Last week, ESPN, a unit of Walt Disney Co., said it may bid for the 2014 Games in Sochi, Russia, as well as the 2016 Games, to be hosted either by Chicago, Rio de Janeiro, Tokyo, or Madrid. Disney's ABC, which would presumably air the Games in conjunction with ESPN, is second only to NBC in the number of Olympics it has broadcast in the United States.

Other likely bidders would include News Corp., which owns Fox and has bid previously, and CBS Corp.

Even Internet powerhouses like Google Inc., Microsoft Corp., or Yahoo Inc. could make a play for a share of the Olympics, given the success NBC Universal had with putting 2,200 hours of live coverage on the Web.

"The more people who are interested in broadcasting the Olympics - all that does is raise the ante for broadcast rights fees, which will then be passed along to advertisers," said Brad Adgate, director of research for Horizon Media in New York.