The fee, for exclusive television, radio and digital rights in the United Kingdom, is split into two parts: £60 million ($95.25 million/€71.6 million) for the Sochi 2014-Rio 2016 Olympic quadrennium and £75 million ($119 million/€90 million) for the period covering Pyeongchang 2018 and Tokyo 2020.

When originally announced a week before the start of the London Games in July 2012, it was reported that the new eight-year deal took the amount that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had raised from European broadcasters in a single quadrennium past $1 billion (£627 million/€750 million) for the first time.

The exact sum the BBC is paying was not, however, disclosed.

In the Olympic cycle culminating with London 2012, rights to all European countries bar Italy were sold in one fell swoop to the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) for $746 million (£468 million/€558 million).

The UK public service broadcaster, which has screened 15 Summer Olympic Games since its first in London in 1948, looks to have struck a good bargain compared to the prices paid for rights to some other big western European markets.

Sky Italia is believed to have paid €152 million (£127 million/€203 million) for Italian rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games, while the Spanish public broadcaster RTVE is thought to have paid $100 million (£62 million/€75 million) for Spanish rights covering the same period.

The Spanish deal was unveiled in September 2009, at a time when the Spanish capital, Madrid, was bidding against Rio, Chicago and Tokyo for the honour of hosting the 2016 Summer Games.

Tokyo 2020 will be the 33rd Olympic Games broadcast by the BBC in all, including 16 editions of the Winter Games, starting in 1960.

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