Music: {allcanada} Olympic broadcasting up in the air in Canada

Monday, June 25, 2012

{allcanada} Olympic broadcasting up in the air in Canada

Bell Media and CBC won't be co-hosting TV coverage of the 2014 and 2016 Olympics after all.

And at this point, exactly who will be broadcasting those Games on Canadian TV is completely up in the air.

The two Canadian media giants aren't fighting with each other, but they are at financial odds with the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Bell Media, which counts CTV and TSN among its many properties, and CBC/Radio-Canada announced Monday that they will not submit any further joint bids for exclusive Canadian media rights to the Sochi, Russia 2014 Winter Olympics and the Rio de Janeiro, Brazil 2016 Summer Olympics.

During their brief partnership, Bell Media and CBC/Radio-Canada submitted two joint bids that were rejected by the IOC.

Basically what's going on here is this: Bell Media and CBC partnered up so they wouldn't be bidding against each other and driving up the price.

But the IOC looked at it and thought, well, if it's a partnership, you should be able to pay through the nose.

The financial gap apparently is so wide that Bell Media, according to sources, is uninterested at this point in making further bids on its own for the 2014 and 2016 Games. Other sources indicated CBC may consider proceeding with a solo bid, but it's too early to know for sure.

Hanging over all of this is the unanswered question of whether the NHL will sanction the participation of its players in the 2014 Games.

That obviously impacts the value of the property, both from a buying and selling point of view.

Bottom line, with the NHL uncertainty, and the IOC's asking price being so out of whack with what Bell Media and CBC expected to pay jointly, they formally have dissolved their bid partnership.

"We presented not one, but two fiscally responsible bids that are reflective of the Canadian marketplace," said Phil King, CTV president of programming and sports, in a statement. "Unfortunately, we were not able to reach agreement on terms with the IOC."

In the same joint statement, Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of CBC sports properties, said, "We were optimistic that an agreement could have been reached but it has to work for all parties - regrettably, that didn't happen. In light of this decision, CBC will step back and take some time to consider our options."