BBC Secures Olympics Coverage

The BBC has secured television coverage of the Olympic Games in 2000, 2004 and 2008, as well as the Winter Olympics in 2002 and 2006. The deal, worth $1.44 billion, defeated the $2 billion bid offered by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.

Jonathan Martin, BBC Television’s Head of Sport, said: “As one of the leading members of the European Broadcasting Union, BBC Television has been in the forefront of their campaign to secure the contract to show the Olympics on terrestrial television until well into the next century, in the face of strong competition from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation.”

Mr Martin also said that the International Olympic Committee shared the BBC’s view that the Olympics should continue to be seen by the largest possible numbers of viewers world-wide.