The Japan Consortium, which includes state broadcaster NHK and the National Association of Commercial Broadcasters of Japan, has acquired the broadcast rights across all media platforms, including free-to-air television, subscription television, internet and mobile.
Four years ago, the same consortium paid $426 million for the rights to the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and the 2012 Summer Games in London. “Japan is an important Olympic nation with a long Olympic history, and the Japan Consortium has been responsible for providing great coverage of the Olympic Games,” said IOC president Jacques Rogge. “The Japan Consortium has demonstrated a strong commitment to the Olympic Movement.”
The 2014 Winter Olympics will take place in Sochi, Russia while the 2016 Summer Games is being hosted by the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro. The award of the Japanese broadcast rights comes as Tokyo aims to hold off competition from five rival cities to win the hosting rights to the 2020 Olympics. Tokyo, which finished third in the tender for the 2016 Olympics behind Madrid and eventual winner Rio de Janeiro, is up against Baku, Doha, Istanbul, Madrid and Rome.
“The Japan Consortium has been an excellent broadcast partner for the Olympic Movement,” added IOC Executive Board member Richard Carrión, who led the negotiations. “We look forward to continuing this relationship for the Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 Olympic Games and to making fantastic coverage of the Olympic Games available to sports fans in Japan.”