Comcast and the Worldwide Olympic Committee have agreed on a brand new deal that expands the corporate’s broadcast attain and extends its media rights for the Olympic Video games by way of 2036.
In a Thursday information launch, the committee stated the roughly $3 billion settlement elevates Comcast from a media rights holder to a “strategic companion.” Comcast and the group will collaborate on broadcast infrastructure, in-venue distribution and U.S. digital promoting, amongst different gadgets, the IOC stated.
“This settlement with Comcast is groundbreaking as a result of it goes far past the normal media rights settlement which we’ve got had for a few years with our valued companion,” IOC President Thomas Bach stated within the announcement. “The media panorama is evolving quickly and, by partnering with one of many world’s main media and expertise corporations, we are going to be certain that followers in the USA are in a position to expertise the Olympic Video games like by no means earlier than.”
Comcast’s earlier settlement with the Olympic committee would have terminated after the 2032 Olympics in Brisbane, Australia. The brand new deal grants Comcast the rights to broadcast the 2034 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake Metropolis in addition to the 2036 Summer time Olympics in a not-yet-determined metropolis.
“We dwell in a time when expertise is driving quicker and extra elementary transformation than we’ve seen in many years. This groundbreaking, new, long-term partnership between Comcast NBCUniversal and the Worldwide Olympic Committee not solely recognises this dynamic however anticipates that it’ll speed up,” Comcast Chairman and CEO Brian Roberts stated.
The deal comes as Comcast and its NBCUniversal unit purpose to make use of dwell sports activities to drive subscriptions to the streaming service Peacock. NBC will spend about $2.5 billion per 12 months to carry a package deal of NBA video games beginning subsequent season.
Throughout final 12 months’s Summer time Olympics in Paris, the push towards Olympics protection on Peacock appeared to repay for the corporate. Over 30 million folks watched the Olympics on NBC’s tv and streaming platforms, and promoting income got here in at a report $1.2 billion.
Disclosure: Comcast is the mother or father firm of NBCUniversal and NBC Information.
Russell Leung, CNBC
Russell Leung is a digital rotational affiliate at CNBC. He graduated from Northwestern College in 2024 with a level in journalism and environmental sciences. He hails from Queens, New York.