As well as in New Zealand, the deal will see Sky providing coverage, which includes free-to-air, of the next Winter and Summer Games on all media platforms in the Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, the Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Nauru, Niue, Palau, Samoa, the Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu.

IOC Finance Commission chairman Richard Carrión, who led the negotiations, said he was pleased to continue the partnership with Sky are working "very successfully" with the firm for Vancouver 2010 and London 2012.

IOC President Thomas Bach also expressed his delight at reaching an agreement with Sky, which was part owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation until they sold their 44 per cent stake in February, for the forthcoming Games.

"With 13 medals, the New Zealand Olympic team enjoyed one of its strongest ever performances at London 2012," said Bach.

"We look forward to working with Sky to ensure that fans in the region will enjoy fantastic broadcast coverage of their athletes competing in Sochi and Rio."

Sky Netowrk Television covered Vancouver 2010 and London 2012, where New Zealand athletes won 13 medals, including six gold

Sky have also won the rights to broadcast the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games in New Zealand, having also shown Delhi 2010 after buying them from Television New Zealand.  

Sky's director of sport, Richard Last, added: "It's massively rewarding to announce Sky Sport will be screening the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics and the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics.

"Our customers love watching worldwide sporting events and it doesn't get any bigger than the Olympics."

Although the figure for the Sky contract has not been disclosed, insidethegames reported last month that the IOC is expecting to raise $4.1 billion (£2.6 billion/€3.1 billion) from broadcasting rights for the Sochi-Rio Olympic quadrennium.

Deals have yet to be agreed in a number of territories, including the Caribbean, sub-Saharan Africa and, insofar as Rio 2016 alone is concerned, Australia, although discussions are said to be underway in all outstanding regions.

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