Olympic Regional Broadcasting Rights Awarded

December 3, 2013

2016 Summer Rio Olympics logoPhilip Guishard, Secretary-General of the Bermuda Olympic Association [BOA] today [Dec 3] commented on the recent decision of the International Olympic Committee [IOC] to award the regional broadcasting rights to the 2016 Rio Games – to CANOC Broadcasting Inc.

CANOC Broadcasting Inc. [CBI] is a company that has been formed by the National Olympic Committees and Commonwealth Games Associations across the Caribbean to purchase, monetise and manage the broadcast rights for the Olympic Games and other sporting properties.

Mr. Guishard said, “The BOA is very pleased to be a part of this venture, which has been in the making for a number of years.

“With previous broadcasting arrangements, Bermudians—like residents of other countries in the region—have been often been frustrated by a lack of coverage of our athletes performing on the world stage.

“With the IOC having awarded regional broadcasting rights to CBI, we anticipate that much more coverage of our athletes will be available for competition in Rio and in other events of the world sports stage.”

The IOC press statement follow below:

The International Olympic Committee [IOC] has awarded the broadcast rights in the Caribbean to the CANOC Broadcasting Inc. [CBI] for the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil [2016].

CBI has acquired broadcast rights on all media platforms in all languages in the following territories:

Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Cooperative Republic of Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and the Turks and Caicos.

IOC President Thomas Bach said: “Throughout the history of the Olympic Games, athletes from across the Caribbean have produced outstanding, inspirational performances. We are pleased to have reached this agreement to enable extensive broadcast coverage of the Rio 2016 Games in the region.”

IOC Member Richard Carrión, who led the negotiations, said: “CBI will now work to secure broadcast partners across the region to ensure the best coverage of the Olympic Games in Rio. The agreement includes assurances that there will be expansive free television coverage of the Games.”

CBI’s CEO, Larry Romany said, “This agreement heralds a new era for sport in the Caribbean. The economic benefits present considerable funding opportunities for developing youth in the Region and increases the viability and international competitiveness of the Caribbean athlete. We are very excited at the prospect of a more integrated approach to the development of sports.”

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Comments (5)

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  1. Family Man says:

    With the internet and streaming TV, the awarding of ‘regional’ broadcast rights is pretty much obsolete.

  2. RME says:

    I’m all for regional coverage so that we can see more of our athletes. But coverage by the Caribbean stations is sub-par at best. It was painful at times to watch the coverage and commentary they provided at the last summer Olympics. Even though they talk about their athletes ad nauseum, I found myself missing the NBC coverage. Like Family Man said, by 2016 we’ll go on-line to watch everything.

  3. Accuracy says:

    The coverage of the London Olympics available on Bda Tv was sub par compared to what was available from the US or GB networks. This is a simple money grabbing exercise by the various ‘committees’ and we will be forced to endure more sub par coverage. Wait till the BOA tries to market this ‘pig with lipstick’ to the beleaguered local commercial sponsors and ends up with a loss instead of a profit! Get yourself a VPN router and watch whatever you want in glorious high-def while you bypass this dinosaur!