Hamish McLennan, the chief executive of Network Ten, has said that the Australian commercial broadcaster is unlikely to bid for the next cycle of rights to the Olympic Games unless the asking price is lowered, according to the AAP news agency.
“At this point in time it looks unlikely – the only thing that would change it would be price expectations,” McLennan said.
He added that commercial broadcaster Nine’s A$25 million (€18.5 million/$24 million) loss on broadcasting the London 2012 Olympic Games had made the rights covering the Sochi 2014 winter Olympics and the Rio de Janeiro 2016 summer Games “a little unpalatable.”
He said: “It’s a real issue in terms of those people selling the rights versus the purchaser of those rights – there’s just a big gap between what represents economic value. We all know the state of the industry and our long-term view is that free-to-air is a good viable industry but I don’t think any company is in a position these days where it can lose tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars.”
Earlier this week, the Australian newspaper said that commercial broadcaster Seven had followed Nine in withdrawing from the bidding process for the next cycle of rights.