Gerard Heiberg, chairman of the IOC marketing commission, said sponsorship deals for future Games were way ahead of previous years and that talks were due to begin with TV networks for the next round of broadcast deals.
"The [Olympic] brand is strong enough to withstand the current economic climate," he explained.
"We have already got eight TOP sponsors up to and including 2008 Beijing and we have never had that many so far in advance.
"We are now talking about starting negotiations, especially with the US networks for the Games in 2010 and 2012.
"There is no firm schedule but we would like to look into the possibility of starting the negotiations early this year. There is a lot of interest from the networks and rights holders and old and new sponsors to continue.
"The market for us is strong and a lot of this is based on the success we had with 2002 Salt Lake City."
"Still the Rings and logo is very strong all over the world which is good for companies interested in going global.
"Now with the Beijing Games in 2008 you have 1.3bn people in China presenting a great opportunity for a lot of companies.
"It is not just a sport event, there are a lot of values from the Olympic Charter that people want to associate with. We have an attractive offer."
Heiberg discusses the situation surrounding Meridian Marketing in depth in the upcoming issue of our sister publication SportBusiness International
