The Olympic games are perhaps the most prized event in television. The negotiations for the Olympic Broadcast rights have been a cocktail of international intrigue and high stakes poker, defining both the future of the Olympic Movement and the broadcasting industry as a whole..

Roone Arledge, ABC’s legendary Sports and News Network President would describe the bidding process, ‘as the IOC placing three scorpions fighting in a bottle, and when it is all over, two will be dead and the winner will be exhausted.’

From the 1950’s, when broadcasters fought to prevent the precedent of any form of rights fees being paid for the opportunity to cover sports events, through to the multi billion $ bidding for the 2012 Olympic Games.

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