Secrets of the Olympic relay interest chain: The major media as a battleground

Absrtact: The International Olympic Committee is becoming more and more like a commercial organization, the sale of Olympic Games broadcast rights of huge income, has become the Olympic Committee to support the important impetus. Shang Lin, a professor of journalism and communication at Nanjing Normal University, who studies Olympic television broadcasts, said to this reporter.

"The International Olympic Committee is becoming more and more like a commercial organization, and the huge revenue from selling Olympic events has become an important impetus for the IOC." "Shang Lin, a professor at the School of Journalism and Communication at Nanjing Normal University, who studies Olympic television broadcasts, said.

In fact, the IOC's emphasis on the Olympic broadcasting rights has been reflected 11 years ago. 2001, the IOC set up the Olympic Broadcasting Service Company (Olympic Broadcasting Services, hereinafter referred to as "OBS"). Since its inception, OBS has led the television signal production of all Olympic events since the 2008 Beijing Olympics (Paralympic Games) and the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics (Paralympic Games).

Obs even by virtue of its relations with the International Olympic Committee, monopolized the IOC plenary's live signal production rights. The 117th plenary meeting of the International Olympic Committee, held in Singapore in June 2005, decided to grant the title of the 2012 Olympic Games to London. This is the first time that OBS has provided a live video of the plenary session to all media throughout the world, in its role as main broadcaster.

7 years later, Obs and the London Olympic Games to renew the front. OBS has registered the Olympic Broadcasting Service London branch (Olympic Broadcasting Services, "OBSL") for the Olympic Games. The company, which is registered in Sussex County in southern England, will be the maker of the TV signals for the games.

"In the International Olympic Committee to maintain the operation of the funds, relying on the distribution of the rights of the profit has accounted for a significant proportion." "Shang Lin said.

And because the copyright buyer and the International Olympic Committee signed confidentiality terms, the media in the broadcast of the Olympic Games for the purchase of copyright fees have not been officially disclosed.

In addition to the distribution of broadcasting rights, the official video recording equipment provided by the Olympic venues is another big cake. Panasonic through the Olympic marketing, in the last two Olympic Games has achieved good sales performance.

"The Olympic relay industry chain has been highly marketable," Shang Lin said, "and the IOC is very mature in its broadcast layout and consideration of commercial interests." ”

Obs in past Life

In fact, until the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, successive Olympic Games television signal production broadcast generally by the Olympic host country's authoritative television organization. The 1964 Tokyo Olympics, for example, were broadcast by the Japan Broadcasting Association (NHK), which provided television signals to countries around the world, while the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics was broadcast by ABC.

In May 2001, the International Olympic Committee set up OBS in Spain and considered the birth of Obs "to create a new era of Olympic relay." OBS is primarily responsible for the production of television and radio signals for future Olympic Games, as well as the design, installation and operation of the Olympic International News Centre (IBC).

In May 2004, 3 years later, in preparation for the Beijing Olympic Games broadcast work, the OBS and BOCOG jointly formed the Beijing Olympic Relay Co., Ltd. (Beijing Olympic Broadcasting, hereinafter referred to as Bob). This is the first time OBS has become the Olympic broadcaster as a principal agency. At that time, the official positioning of Bob is "a Sino-foreign cooperative operation of the nature of the Olympic Games television broadcasting business enterprises."

This reporter cannot master Bob's specific operating expenses. However, in November 2005, the Chinese Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of taxation jointly issued a circular on Beijing Olympic Relay Co., Ltd. on the tax policy, disclosed that BOCOG had allocated about 210 million euros to Bob to operate.

Jiang, executive vice chairman of BOCOG and Chairman of the IOC Coordinating Committee, Verbruggen, is Bob's two board member. Bob's general manager, Manoro Romero, has over 20 years of television experience and the chief operating officer is the national power seconded from the post of director of the CCTV Sports Center.

The professionals employed by Bob also come from all over the world. For example, the swimming competition by the most adept at this project by the Australians to broadcast, track and field television signal by the Swedish and Finnish people jointly provided, gymnastics is the Japanese television special, table tennis, badminton by CCTV team broadcast.

The team of Bob, a CCTV executive, was once mistaken for CCTV's Olympic broadcaster. So that when the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, some contrast CCTV and NBC two different opening versions, and the CCTV version of the poor, the domestic audience, the criticism of the target on Bob.

In fact, the NBC signal is also provided by Bob. But CCTV and NBC, which bought the Olympic relay's rights as the "bearer of the rights", had the right to edit the live signals from Bob, which led to different versions of the lens switch when different licensees broadcast the Beijing Olympics.

According to data from Obs, Bob, who has more than 4,000 staff, used 1000 cameras to provide 3,800-hour event signals during the Beijing Olympics, with more than 30 billion viewers in 200 countries and regions around the world who watched the Beijing Olympics through Bob's signals.

In fact, Bob belongs to the project company, after completing all the broadcasts of the Beijing Olympics and Paralympic Games, October 15, 2009, Bob Liquidation Group to the Ministry of Commerce of China to revoke the approval certificate of foreign investment enterprise, said that Bob completed the task was formally revoked.

At the London Olympics, OBS will no longer be in joint ventures with the London Organising committee, and in turn independent of the UK's registration of the Olympic Broadcasting Service London branch (OBSL) for the production of the event signal. However, Obs says OBSL's responsibilities and team composition will be essentially the same as Bob's in the Beijing Olympics.

In fact, Obs has played a very important role in the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. The Olympic Games, also organised by the IOC, are far less powerful and influential than the Olympics, and the coverage of successive Winter Olympics is a problem. OBS will help the Vancouver Winter Olympics to achieve the first global event coverage, as well as high-definition TV signals and 5.1-channel audio transmission.

Manoro Romero, who served as general manager of the Beijing Olympics, also served as CEO of the Vancouver Winter Olympics, and he was very sure of the company's performance at that Winter Olympics.

"In the past the Winter Games were broadcast only to certain areas that had the advantage of winter sports, for example, Europe, North America," he said in a media interview, "Now through the OBS, we can almost to all the television media to provide the Olympic Games signal, even those who did not send a group to Vancouver media, can provide high quality sports coverage to the audience. ”

London Olympic broadcasting rights war

According to the International Olympic Committee positioning, OBS is only responsible for the Olympic Games signal production, and distribution rights of the main body is the Olympic Games International News Center (IBC). Olympic broadcasting rights have always been the world's major media as a military strategist.

Coincidentally, 64 years ago the 1946 Olympic Games were also hosted by London, and the BBC at that time to pay 1000 pounds to buy the London Olympic Games broadcast rights, to create the media to buy the Olympic Games copyright. 64 years later, the distribution of Olympic broadcasting rights has become more mature, and the cost has been growing exponentially.

In the 1958, the Olympic Charter added new provisions for the distribution of television copyright income: "Approved by the IOC, the authority is sold by the organizing committee and the income is distributed in accordance with the International Olympic Committee's instructions". The IOC assigns 60% of its television royalties to the Olympic Committee, and the remaining 40% is distributed by the National Olympic Committee, the International Sports Federation and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) three.

In the 80 's, with the impetus of samaranch and American businessmen, the commercial value of the Olympic Games was rapidly magnified, and the enthusiasm of media coverage was boosted by the growth of ratings and advertising revenue, which began to show great value during this period.

With the popularization of new media, since 2008, the Internet media to buy the Olympic broadcasting power unprecedented increase. YouTube has announced the purchase of copyright for the London Olympics and will provide live broadcasts to 64 countries and regions in Asia and Africa. It is the first time the Olympics has provided free live to viewers through YouTube video sites, which are expected to benefit 450 million Internet users worldwide.

As the traditional media television, the battle for the Olympic broadcasting power is more intense. Data show that since the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee television broadcasting rights distribution income has increased markedly. During the Athens Olympics, television broadcasters paid 597 million of dollars to buy copyright. 4 years later, the Beijing Olympics, this number increased to 1.7147 billion U.S. dollars. And IOC president Jacques Rogge revealed in a media interview this July that the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Olympics have risen to 3.9 billion dollars in income from television rights. He predicts copyright revenues for the next Winter Olympics and the Summer Games will "reach at least 4 billion dollars".

NBC, the nation's three largest television networks, has spent 1.18 billion of billions of dollars on broadcasting rights to the London Olympics, and ABC and CBS will be absent from the games because they have not bought it, according to Forbes magazine's website. In addition, Telemundo, a subsidiary of NBC Universal (NBC Universal), also bought the copyright for the London Olympics as the second largest Spanish-language television channel in the United States, so that NBC has won over the other two national television networks, which dominate the London Olympics.

In mainland China and Hong Kong, the media industry has different patterns, resulting in a diverse range of competing broadcasting rights.

In the mainland, CCTV has already laid the exclusive advantage of buying the Olympic distribution in the mainland by virtue of its monopoly position. March 26, 2009, CCTV announced the signing of a formal agreement with the IOC, including the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Olympic Games China Television broadcasting rights, new media copyright and audio-visual copyright. That means CCTV will have exclusive rights to the copyright distribution of the London Olympics.

In fact, as early as the Beijing Olympic Games, CCTV in the Olympic broadcasting rights in the distribution business to obtain a huge profit. According to reports at the time, CCTV to 20 million yuan to obtain new media copyright, after the 30 million-50 million yuan per home price sold to more than 10 domestic commercial websites, net earn nearly 400 million yuan.

CCTV did not disclose the cost of buying the London Olympic Games copyright, but because its subordinate CNTV exclusive monopoly of the London Olympic Games new media broadcast rights, and has to the domestic business portal distribution of Olympic reports and video-on-demand copyright, then still can copy the Beijing Olympic business model.

This model, viewed by Professor Shang Lin, who studies the Olympic television broadcasts, is formed by the monopoly advantage brought by administrative intervention.

"In accordance with the State Administration of radio and television regulations, in the mainland, only by CCTV to the IOC to buy broadcast rights to other TV channels distribution." "Shang Lin to this reporter said," And this provision is nominally to solve the different media at the same time competition to buy copyright, leading to raise prices, but in fact, maintain the monopoly of CCTV. ”

In addition to television, domestic new media operators are facing the same problem. June 2008, the National Copyright Bureau, the Ministry of Industry and the State Administration of radio and television has jointly issued the National Power League [2008]3, which stipulates that "to avoid the Olympic Games broadcast rights are illegal infringement, while promoting the development of new media in China, the Internet and mobile platforms can be obtained by the CCTV Network Communication Center authorized form Legitimate use of the Olympic Games and related activities of the video and audio program signals. ”

The above document also in fact blocked the domestic commercial web site directly to the International Olympic Committee to buy the copyright path. In this connection, Tencent Deputy editor-in-chief Wang Yongzhi said to our correspondent, "In fact, the IOC did not enforce the regulation of broadcasting rights can only be sold to one, as long as there is broadcast platform, the IOC is willing to sell, but in the domestic involved in the relevant policy restrictions." ”

In Hong Kong, the full market competition of television media has also brought about new problems: The infighting in several television stations almost led to the inability of Hong Kong people to watch the Olympic live games free of charge.

Hong Kong Cable television won the exclusive right to broadcast the London Olympic Games in Hong Kong in 2007, at a cost of HK $ Million. And the IOC has stipulated that cable TV must have a free TV channel that broadcasts at least 200 hours of Olympic Games. However, all channels of cable television in Hong Kong are charged and must co-operate with TVB and ATV's two free television stations. But 3 television stations have been locked in a stalemate over the arrangements for broadcasting.

It was not until 10 days before the opening of the London Olympics that TVB and ATV agreed to pay a reasonable fee to cable for the 7-hour meeting between the Hong Kong government and the Hong Kong Olympic Committee, and then to jointly produce 200-hour Olympic programmes and broadcast advertisements on the free channel. Previously, wireless and ATV had outgoing news that they would buy the Olympic relay rights to the IOC alone.

Not without risk.

In fact, CCTV has already bought up three consecutive Olympic Games broadcast rights since 2000 Sydney Olympic Games as early as 1997. Data show that CCTV relies on the Athens Olympic Games to obtain about 700 million yuan in advertising revenue, and the Beijing Olympic Games, the number rose to 2 billion-3 billion yuan.

Unlike CCTV, which has almost no hesitation in making profits from the London Olympics broadcast rights distribution and advertising revenue, NBC, which has exclusive access to the US regional television rights in London, is still facing billions of dollars in losses.

"The American media is fully marketable. In this environment, the investment risk of TV media can be predicted. The television station buys the broadcast right, must have already had the full appraisal to the investment and the repayment. "Shang Lin said," and broadcasting rights are very expensive, so the television agencies to the market needs to be very rigorous, otherwise it will carry a heavy burden. ”

In this respect, NBC Global CEO Steve Bock also in New York at the end of June this year in a public forum, said to the media, "we are trying to determine that the cost of NBC's purchase of Olympic rights will not result in significant losses for the company every two years (i.e., summer and Winter Olympics), and we believe it has. ”

NBC has paid 1.18 billion of dollars for the London Olympics broadcast rights. The parent company, NBC Universal, revealed that it spent 4.38 billion of dollars to buy rights to broadcast from the four Olympic Games of 2008-2020.

But Steve Bock admits that while NBC's current ad revenue for the London Olympics has increased 100 million dollars compared to the Beijing Olympics, he and his team will not be able to ensure that NBC is profitable through the London Games.

NBC has won 950 million of billions of dollars in advertising through the London Games and may grow to 1 billion in the future, but analysts at Milletabach, a stock-investment firm, say they estimate that NBC's losses in the London Olympics could reach 100 million to 200 million dollars.

As for the cause of the loss, NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazares that the British and American jet lag will not be suitable for U.S. audiences to watch the live broadcast of important events, which will lead to a reduction in the number of TV viewers, further impact on the growth of advertising revenue. At the Beijing Olympics, about 214 million American viewers were broadcast live via NBC, but the president of NBC Research and Development, Alain Vaux, said cautiously that the number would be "over 200 million" when estimating the number of spectators in the London Olympics.

"The right to broadcast is usually started a few years before the Olympic Games began to sell, of course, not excluding the decision to buy the television station, but in a few years because of the expensive broadcast rights trading, resulting in the financial crisis of television stations." "Shang Lin said.

And the Olympic broadcast industry chain is often overlooked upstream, that is, the Olympic Games recording equipment providers, but rely on the Olympic Games to obtain a very substantial profit.

In April 2011, Panasonic announced that as the top sponsor of the IOC, it had identified with the OBSL the official High-definition television record format that would provide exclusive radio and television for the London Olympics, as well as the latest equipment such as high-definition photography recorders and portable recorders.

Panasonic China Media PR people with "involved in the contract secret" as the basis, declined this reporter would like to know the details of the cooperation and the amount of money involved, but Panasonic responsible for public relations in the forging of the Executive service staff said to this newspaper, "The Olympic Games in the history of the reform of broadcasting technology, has been a pioneer in the role." Panasonic has been sponsoring the Olympic Broadcasting Service for the first time since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, the first digital broadcast, to the 2008 Beijing Olympics. ”

At least in Athens and the Beijing Olympics, Panasonic relied on top sponsors and official video equipment providers to make a good record in the end market for Olympic marketing. Panasonic is the official designated video recording equipment provider for Athens and Beijing Olympics, which helped Panasonic's profits soar more than 10 times times in the 2004-year quarter. In the two quarter of 2008, Panasonic's net profit also increased by 22.2% compared with a year earlier.