Rogers Media no longer interested in airing the 2014 Olympic Games
It has recently come to light that Rogers Media is no longer interested in broadcasting the 2014 Olympic Games. The media group has withdrawn its name from the bid that would have given Rogers Media the rights to broadcast not only the 2014 Winter Olympic
Games but also the 2016 Summer Olympics.
Rogers group was in a partnership with CTV Inc. of Bell Media and both parties had agreed to televise the prestigious international sporting event together.
Keith Pelley, who is the president of telecommunications of the media group made the following comments regarding the decision taken by his company: "Scheduling conflicts, combined with our financial priorities, suggest that it's best for us not to be involved
at this time."
Despite the fact that Rogers Media is backing out of airing the 2014 as well as the 2016 Olympic Games, it will still be broadcasting the London 2012 Olympic Games. Rogers Media had already committed to airing next year’s Olympic Games when it bid to have
the rights for the 2010 Olympic Games as well. In order to transmit both the 2010 and 2012 Olympic events, Rogers and CTV had to pay a total of $150 million.
It has not been a good experience for Rogers Media to be transmitting the 2010 Vancouver Games despite the fact that the event took place on home soil. The partnership ended up losing money on the Olympics Games and the pattern is expected to repeat itself
in the upcoming London 2012 Olympics. The bid that had been made to air the last two Olympics contained a chunk of $90 million for the 2010 Games on which the partnership had lost money.
The partnership held Rogers Media with a 20% share in Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium while the remaining 80% went with the largest private broadcaster in Canada, CTV.
Pelley also added the following comments with regard to the recently made decision from Rogers Media: “This was a difficult decision on so many levels. But it's a disciplined approach that allows us to pursue new opportunities to best serve our viewers,
shareholders and advertisers."
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