David Hill, the chairman and chief executive of Fox, claimed today that he Olympics was one of the great events in the calendar and that he wanted his station to show it.

He told Variety: "It's one of those greats things to have.

"It's an iconic event.

"We will make a strong bid next time around."

His words contradict the views expressed by Murdoch, the head of News Corporation, who own Fox, last September who claimed that Fox were unlikely to bid unless Chicago were awarded them.

He told a media event: "In spite of all the propaganda and everything - I don't want to call anybody a liar - but no one's ever made any money out of them [the Olympics]."

But Hill, an Australian who worked in London for many years where he helped launch Eurosport, Sky Television and Sky Sports, has long coveted showing the Olympics.

Fox is the only one of the major US networks never to have broadcast the Games and were outbid for this year's Vancouver Olympics and London 2012 by NBC, who agreed a record $2.2 billion (£1.3 billion) deal in 2003, 46 per cent more than they had paid for Turin 2006 and Beijing 2008.

That was nearly double the $1.3 billion (£861 million) that Fox bid.

Chicago's humiliating failure to win its bid to host the 2016 Olympics and the fact that NBC lost $200 million (£124 million) on Vancouver has led to some observers to speculate that the rights for Sochi and Rio de Janeiro will be worth less this time round.

But ABC and ESPN have already announced that they plan to put in a joint bid and NBC are expected to try to retain the rights when the negotiations open later this year.

Hill said: "Last time, our bid was under NBC's bid, but we did what we thought was right for us.

"We will bid what we bid.

"What we've always done is look at our economics and figured out what we were going to do.

"The problem is you don't know the economic conditions at the time of the Games.

"Were we too cautious last time around?

"I don't think we were.

"If [NBC] lost $200 million, what would we have done?"

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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