New IOC president Jacques Rogge told delegates at the twelfth Sportel Market Symposium in Monaco that of 3,800 hours of Olympic Games action last summer only around 200 were shown live by broadcasters.
Among the ideas being considered by Rogge and high-powered IOC executives is a strategy which would allow broadcast partners – mostly national public broadcasters – to sub-licence coverage to cable and even pay-per-view outlets.
“However, we believe that we must be cautious in our approach because we understand that demand will not necessarily increase in line with supply,” said Rogge.
Rogge believes that the strategy would deliver new opportunities for coverage of sports which currently suffer from under-exposure due to a lack of scheduling time.
However, his vision of the future is not shared by Marc Tessier, president of the French public broadcaster, France TV.
He told the audience in Monaco that he could not accept that other broadcasters would be able to show sports disciplines in competition with the main Games schedule.
He believes such a move would lead to fragmentation which would have a negative impact on audiences and that ‘the unity of the event would disappear’.
