Canadian public-service broadcaster CBC and telecommunications company Bell have dropped their joint bid for the Canadian media rights to the 2014 and 2016 Olympic Games, having had two offers rejected by the International Olympic Committee.
The CBC-Bell partnership was formed in September 2011. Their latest bid, which was rejected in February, was believed to be around half the value of the C$153 million (€118.6 million/$149.2 million) that telecommunications company Rogers Communications and Bell jointly paid for the rights covering the 2010 and 2012 Games. Rogers said last year it would not bid for the next cycle of rights.
Bell owns cable-television broadcaster CTV, whose president of programming and sports, Phil King, said: “We presented not one, but two fiscally responsible bids that are reflective of the Canadian marketplace. Unfortunately, we were not able to reach agreement on terms with the IOC.”
Jeffrey Orridge, executive director of CBC Sports Properties, told the CBCSports.ca website that the lack of progress in talks with the IOC led to the end of the partnership with Bell. “We felt that the approach we were taking was not yielding the intended result,” he said. “So we decided that we would be better off just dissolving the joint partnership.”
Orridge added CBC would now take some time to assess its options before deciding whether to continue in the bidding process.