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ESPN Looks to Bid on 2014 and 2016 Olympics

NBC is experiencing some of the largest audiences of any Olympics since the Games were held in Atlanta in 1996. Thanks to Michael Phelps and the Golden Girls (beach volleyball's Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh and Nastia Lukin and Shawn Johnson, depending on your sporting preference) these Olympics are on course to be the most watched Summer Olympics in history. NBC's gamble of using its cable networks and online to blanket live coverage combined with taped and live coverage in prime time on the parent network, seems to be paying off in a big way.

The current contract between NBC and the International Olympic Committee expires at the conclusion of the 2012 Summer Games in London, It's a given that NBC will want to renew the contract, especially considering the amount of profit these Games will generate. ESPN is expected to bid and compete aggressively for the contract. I don't know about you, but the thought of the Games being broadcast by ESPN is not very comforting.

I'm not a huge fan of NBC's coverage, although this year has been better than most. I would prefer to see events live no matter what time they occur and NBC had done a better job at that than in the past up until the last couple of days. ESPN would likely broadcast everything live, but if the last World Cup is any indication of how the WWWL would treat the Olympics, we should all pray that NBC gets the contract. The thought of Chris Berman and Stuart Scott anchoring the broadcast is well, not something I care to contemplate before breakfast. While not all of NBC"s announcers have been the greatest, at least most of them are familiar with the sport they are announcing or if not, have studied sufficiently hard to fake it. It was clear for ESPN's World Cup coverage that the WWWL doesn't place too high a premium on its announcers having any basic knowledge of the sport being covered or else the suits would not have inflicted Dave O'Brien on us.

Full post as published by Sports Biz on August 21, 2008 (boomark / email).