Olympic Games

The International Olympic Committee has said the 2016 summer Olympic Games delivered record-breaking media coverage and “unprecedented” levels of digital engagement.

The BBC has confirmed that its digital coverage of the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro reached 102.3 million unique global browsers – a record for the UK public-service broadcaster.

US media company NBCUniversal has recorded its first television ratings slip for a summer Olympic Games since 2000.

UK commercial broadcaster ITV will switch off each of its seven channels for an hour next week as part of the I Am Team GB initiative, which encourages the British public to celebrate the country’s Olympians through a series of free sports events.

BeIN Media Group has said it will “work closely” with the International Olympic Committee on its new Olympic Channel project after formally signing its rights deal with the organisation.

Japanese tyre company Bridgestone has stepped up its commitment to the Olympic Movement by signing on as the first founding partner of the International Olympic Committee’s new Olympic Channel.

Media company Fairfax Media has claimed a victory for press freedom after a judge today (Friday) decided to dismiss pay-television broadcaster Sky New Zealand’s application for an injunction on its online video coverage of the 2016 summer Olympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee has struck a partnership with Facebook that will allow users of the social media website’s Facebook Messenger service to interact with a ‘bot’ about live updates and highlights from the Olympic Games in Rio, according to the Mashable digital news service.

Internet company Yahoo has extended a digital content partnership with US media company NBCUniversal for the Rio 2016 summer Olympic Games, which get underway this (Friday) evening.

Political turmoil, arguments over price and the beginning of Turkish Süper Lig negotiations has created a logjam in the Turkish sports-rights market, badly affecting rights-holders including the International Olympic Committee and the English Premier League.

Pay-television broadcaster SportsMax approximately doubled the value of the Olympics in the Caribbean in order to win rights to the 2018 and 2020 Games.

Chinese state broadcaster CCTV has recouped CNY200m (€27.3m/$30m) of its outlay on the Rio Olympics in digital rights deals this week.

Pan-European sports broadcaster Eurosport has said it is up to German public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF to make progress in discussions over sublicensing rights for the Olympic Games.

Chinese internet company Tencent has acquired rights for the upcoming Rio 2016 summer Olympic Games in a sublicensing deal with state broadcaster CCTV.

Australian commercial broadcaster Seven has agreed a content partnership with social media platform Twitter ahead of its return as a rights partner of the Olympic Games.

International Media Content, parent company of pay-television broadcaster SportsMax and a subsidiary of telecommunications group Digicel, has acquired exclusive broadcast rights in the Caribbean to the 2018 winter Olympics in PyeongChang and the 2020 summer Games in Tokyo.