The International Olympic Committee has exteneded its agreement with the CBC for the exclusive rights to televise the Olympic Games in Canada through Brisbane 2032.
The prior deal was set to expire after the 2024 Olympic Games. The extension keeps the Olympics on CBC through Milan-Cortina 2026, LA 2028, the 2030 Winter Olympics (no host named), and Brisbane 2032.
The contract includes all media platforms (broadcast and digital), and a commitment to broadcast at least 200 hours of the Summer Olympics and 100 hours of the Winter Olympics on free-to-air television.
The news comes amid an evaluation of television rights for the Games, which globally saw low ratings for the Tokyo 2020 and Beijing 2022 Games. In Canada, primetime viewership for the 2022 Winter Olympics fell 48% from the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Games. The Winter Olympics have historically been a bigger draw in Canada. Canada is typically one of the top teams in the medals table during the Winter Games. While they still do win a lot of Summer Games medals (24 in Tokyo), they are usually ranked lower than the Winter Games (11th in Tokyo, 3rd in Beijing).
That has been offset, though, by record-high digital traffic.
“The Olympics are the culmination of so many athletes’ dreams,” said CBC CEO Catherine Tait. “As Canada’s public broadcaster, we’re proud to share their journey, from local competitions across the country all the way through to national and world championships throughout the year. It’s an honour to be able to continue sharing these great stories with Canadians for years to come.”
The value of the deal was not disclosed.
The first televast of the Olympic Games came in 1956 in Melbourne, Australia, when the CBC aired highlights of the previous day’s hockey game between Canada and the Soviet Union.
CTV won the broadcasting rights to the Winter Olympics beginning in 1964, but retained their rights to the Summer Games.
The CBC again hosted the Winter Olympics in 1984, 1992, 1996, 2002, and 2006.
Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium obtained the rights to host both the 2010 and 2012 Olympic Games before the events returned to CBC for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. CBC has hosted ever since.
Amazon in Australia?
Meanwhile in another Commonwealth country, Amazon has made a bid to acquire the rights to the Olympic Games in Australia. Via their Prime Video streaming service, Amazon already acquired the rights for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics and the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games in swimming, which was their first major foray into Australian sports broadcasting.
That move came after Swimming Australia was unable to come to terms with their existing partners.
Prime is making a big push internationally to broadcast live sports – In 2018, they signed a 5-year deal to televise the U.S. Open of tennis in the UK for $40 million.
While Prime Video’s rights to the Olympic Games wouldn’t extend outside of Australia, they have broadcast the swimming championships that they hold the rights to internationally, making it much easier for global swim fans to follow the racing in one of the world’s biggest swimming markets.
Whereas in the US, the Prime Video streaming service has largely been a trailing service for people who already subscribed for the shipping and shopping benefits, in other parts of the world, the service is being used as a leading Business Insider data from late 2021 showed that 2.9 million Australians subscribed to Amazon Prime Video. The organization only began doing business there in 2017.