By David Owen

Olympic RingsAugust 12 - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has moved closer to completing its roster of broadcasting deals for the 2013-2016 Olympic cycle, selling rights in 17 Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Indonesia, Iran and Thailand, to Japanese advertising company Dentsu.

The deal will carry the sum raised by the IOC from broadcasting rights for the period encompassing the Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 Games further above the record $4 billion (£2 billion/€3 billion) threshold it crossed in March by selling rights to Latin American markets outside Brazil to Carlos Slim's América Móvil.

Attention will probably now switch to New Zealand, the sole outstanding market harbouring significant interest in the 2014 Winter Games in just six months' time.

In the 2009-2012 cycle, these rights went to Sky Network Television along with its free-to-air channel Prime.

Other territories where the IOC still has to conclude deals include the Caribbean, South Africa, the rest of sub-Saharan Africa, Puerto Rico and, insofar as Rio 2016 is concerned, Australia.

Dentsu has acquired exclusive gatekeeper broadcaster rights in the 17 territories and will now seek broadcast partners on all platforms.

The full list of countries covered by the new deal is Afghanistan, Brunei, Burma, Cambodia, East Timor, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Mongolia, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

In addition, Dentsu was earlier awarded rights in a further five central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.

Kiyoshi Nakamura, Dentsu executive officer, said the company was "committed to contributing to the development of the Olympic Movement in Asia by distributing media rights in a total of 22 Asian territories".

The deals also cover the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics in Nanjing.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


Related stories
July 2013: IOC award Sochi 2014 and Rio 2016 television rights to Star India
June 2013: IOC opens Olympic broadcast rights bid process in 24 Asian countries
March 2013: Exclusive - New technology should add value to Olympic content, claims Carrión
March 2013: Slim dials up Olympic ringtone to send IOC broadcast revenues to $4 billion-plus record