IOC insists TV rights aren't about highest financial offer

MADRID, Spain -- U.S. television rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics won't necessarily go to the highest bidder.

Four networks -- NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox -- will submit offers next month to the International Olympic Committee in Lausanne, Switzerland.

IOC director general Francois Carrard said the committee will select the network that comes up with the best overall package and not just the most money.

"There are many other elements -- the minimum commitments, the coverage, free-to-air, the systems, the platforms used, possible developments with new technology," he said.

"It's not just opening envelopes and reading numbers and saying the highest bidder."

IOC and industry executives say the combined fee for the two games could top $2 billion. NBC paid a total of $1.5 billion for the rights to the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy, and 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

The networks are bidding without knowing where the 2010 and 2012 Olympics will be held.

The rights auction -- the first multinetwork bidding in a decade -- will take place June 5-6. In each case, the bid includes programming that would be split among cable and broadcast networks. The package also is expected to include Internet rights.

Carrard said each network will make two-hour presentations to an IOC panel, headed by president Jacques Rogge. At the end of the meetings June 6, the networks will submit bids to Rogge in sealed envelopes.

The panel will begin reviewing the offers and probably announce the winner during the June 7-8 weekend, Carrard said. If necessary, the IOC could call the networks for further meetings and postpone a decision, added.

A draft of the proposed contract agreement will be sent to the networks next week, Carrard said.

The 2010 Winter Games site will be selected July 2. The candidates are Vancouver, British Columbia; Salzburg, Austria; and Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The 2012 Summer Games host will be decided in 2005. New York; London; Madrid, Spain; Leipzig, Germany; and Havana have entered the race. Paris and Moscow are expected to announce bids next week. Other potential contenders include Toronto and Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.

NBC paid $3.5 billion in a pair of deals in 1995 for the rights to five Olympics from 2000 to 2008. Those deals were made without a formal bid process under former IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch. Rogge, who succeeded Samaranch in 2001, promised an open process.

Meanwhile, Greek organizers assured the IOC executive board Friday that Athens would be ready on time for the 2004 Olympics.

Organizing committee chief Gianna Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said the delays that were sharply criticized by the IOC in February had been resolved.

"We are confident and we know will be ready on time," she said.

With 15 months to go, she cited progress on several fronts: the International Broadcast Center has been delivered; the doping control lab will be completed within days; a new metro serving 80,000 passengers daily opened last month; the security contract has been signed; construction on all venues, including a soccer stadium in Athens, is under way; and public ticket sales began May 12.

The impact of the SARS outbreak was discussed during the Athens-IOC meeting, including concern that the virus could disrupt qualifying and test events.

Angelopoulos-Daskalaki said the IOC was reviewing SARS on a "case by case basis." She said Athens and the IOC would observe medical and government policies without discriminating against any nation or group.