Murdoch challenge for Olympic TV coverage

MATHEW HORSMAN

Media Editor

The European Broadcasting Union's stranglehold on rights to screen the Olympic Games has been challenged for the first time, as confirmation came yesterday that Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and several partners have bid $2bn for the rights to all five Olympic Games between 2000 and 2008.

The audacious bid, delivered to the International Olympic Committee on Monday, could force the union - made up of European public service broadcasters including the BBC - to raise its bid for future Games.

Senior executives at News Corporation's television arm, headed by Sam Chisholm, declined to comment yesterday. But it is believed that the team has sharply criticised the union's past efforts to broadcast the Games, and that it is convinced that public service broadcasters will be unable to fund an adequate bid for the rights by the end of the decade.

The changing nature of television in Europe, particularly the fragmentation of distribution channels, has made it increasingly difficult for public broadcasters to compete for programming. In the UK, the BBC has already been shut out of some sport and film rights because of spiralling costs.

The News Corp consortium is expected to share the rights with terrestrial and subscription television services throughout Europe, and is prepared to give precise undertakings to encourage as wide a viewership as possible.

If the bid is successful, viewers of pay-TV channels in the UK such as Sky Sports, part of Mr Murdoch's 40 per cent-owned BSkyB satellite broadcaster, will get wall-to-wall coverage of big Olympic events. Highlights, as well as some live action, will also be available on terrestrial "free" television.