Comcast Signs $7.75B Deal To Broadcast Olympics Through 2032

Bob Costas fans rejoice! The International Olympic Committee has only chosen venues for its summer games through 2020, but that hasn’t stopped the IOC from quietly striking a nearly $8 billion deal with Comcast to grant NBC exclusive U.S. rights to Olympics broadcasts through 2032, meaning children conceived in the afterglow of Team Canada’s dual Curling wins at Sochi will be adults before they even have the chance to see the games broadcast on another network.

According to the AP, the $7.75 billion accord between Comcast and the IOC has been going on in secret for about six months, during which time no other networks were given a chance to bid.

To repeat: The IOC only negotiated with Comcast for U.S. broadcast rights… for a 10-figure deal… that doesn’t sound like a solid business practice to us; nor does it sound like the U.S. media market is terribly competitive.

It extends NBC’s existing deal, signed in 2011, that had already guaranteed Olympics coverage to the network through the 2020 Summer games in Tokyo.

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