The International Olympic Committee and NBC Sports announced today that the NBCUniversal family has secured broadcast rights for the Summer and Winter Olympics through 2032.
The deal, announced on Wednesday, adds to the current contract, covers all media platforms, including broadcast TV, cable, internet and mobile video.
This is a key deal for both NBC and the IOC. It keeps the Olympic Movement alive, as it ensures that the largest media market in the world will continue to see the Games thanks to a major financial commitment from NBC. For NBC, it assures the network that it will have major events every two years that are guaranteed to draw huge audiences.
“The IOC has worked in close partnership with NBC for many decades, and we are thrilled we will continue to work with them through to 2032,” IOC President Thomas Bach said in a joint statement with the network. “NBC’s expertise in sports broadcasting, as well as their passion for the Olympic values, will mean we shall be able continue to offer first-class broadcast coverage of the Olympic Games to the widest possible American audience for many years to come.”
NBCU’s current deal with the IOC ran until 2020, including the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Summer Games, the 2018 Winter Games in PyeongChang and the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo. The deal announced today, which covers 2021 to 2032, is worth an estimated $7.65 billion. There was also an $100 million signing bonus that NBCU will use for Olympics promotion from 2015 to 2020.
NBCU CEO Steve Burke called it one of the company’s “most important days,” adding, “The Olympics are part of the fabric of our company, and we couldn’t be more excited that today’s announcement guarantees that this massively popular and profitable programming will continue to air every two years on the broadcast, cable, digital and mobile platforms of NBCUniversal for the next two decades. No event brings families together like the Olympics, and no-one in media is more accomplished or better equipped to tell the athletes’ stories than NBC Sports.”
NBCU will also air the Youth Olympic Games through 2032.