IOC Awards 2010, 2012 Olympic Broadcast Rights for Asia

LAUSANNE, July 21: The
International Olympic Committee (IOC) has inked agreements with the Asian
Broadcasting Union (ABU) and ESPN STAR Sports (ESS) for the broadcast rights
within certain Asian territories for the Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 Olympic
Games.

The ABU has acquired
terrestrial over-the-air TV and radio broadcast rights, while ESS has been
granted the non-standard TV rights, including cable and satellite platforms.
Both organizations will have certain simultaneous unaltered retransmission
rights on other media platforms.

The deal covers select
territories across Asia, including India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore,
Thailand and Vietnam, as well as Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan,
Cambodia, East Timor, Iran, Laos, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar,
Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea and Sri Lanka.

The ESS agreement does not
include Iran and Mauritius, but covers Macao and New Caledonia, only in
English. ESS will also be broadcasting historic highlights of Olympic Games
programming, taken from more than 30,000 hours of archives.

Richard Carrión, an
executive board member of the IOC, said: “We are delighted to continue our
partnership with the ABU and to welcome ESPN STAR Sports to the Olympic
movement. Their support will enable us to provide high-quality coverage of the
Vancouver and London Games to Olympic fans and help to promote Olympic sports
across the region.”

Manu Sawhney, the managing
director of ESS, commented: “We are extremely pleased to partner with the
International Olympic Committee. We are committed to promoting the spirit of
the Olympic Games and we are delighted that our viewers can now be part of the
excitement as they watch, share and celebrate the 2010 Winter Games, 2012
Summer Games and additional Olympic Games programming on our platforms.”

Added John Barton, the
director of sport at the ABU: “The ABU continues to provide free-to-air
coverage to an enormous population base throughout the Asia-Pacific region. We
see our role, in partnership with the IOC, as being to promote the intrinsic
values of the Olympic Games, the spirit of Olympism, and to support, through
our reach to the biggest television audience in the world, the hopes and dreams
of new Olympians.”

—By Kristin
Brzoznowski