Bell Media and CBC join hands to air the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games
Bell Media and CBC have recently made the announcement that they will be joining hands to make a bid to obtain the Canadian television rights in order to air the 2014 Winter Olympic Games to be held in Sochi, Russia as well as the 2016 Summer Games in Rio
de Janeiro, Brazil.
A press release confirmed the news in the following manner: “A successful bid through this new bilateral partnership will combine the strength of Bell Media and CBC/Radio-Canada’s Olympic broadcasting history in Canada to deliver to all Canadians, in English
and French, the most comprehensive, diverse, and media-rich Games ever seen in this country.”
Interestingly, the consortium formed by the partnership of Bell Media and CBC is going to be the only bidder for the rights to televise the Olympic Games.
Only shortly before Bell Media and CBC announced their collaboration, Rogers Media had made it public that it would no longer be partnering with Bell to seek the rights for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games. Previously, both Bell Media and Rogers Media had
collaboratively bought the rights of the 2010 as well as the 2012 Olympic Games. The partnership that bound Bell and Rogers together was a 80/20 deal between the two parties. Despite the fact that the 2010 Olympics had taken place in their homeland, it was
a money losing venture for both the companies. It is also expected that the London 2012 Olympic Games will not be a money making event for both Bell Media as well as Rogers Media.
It is not expected that the bid for the 2014 and 2016 Olympic events will be as high as it was for the previous two events. The bid that Rogers Media and Bell Media made cost a total of $153-million. This is largely due to the fact that there is limited
competition in the upcoming bid.
The president of Bell Media, Kevin Crull, made the following comments regarding the bid: “Our bid will be beneficial for everybody involved, for sure. It’ll be a sensible bid, but it’ll be reflective of the fact that this is the premier sports event in the
world.”
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