Questions about CTV and its future Olympic coverage
March 15, 2010 · 26 Comments
Is CTV hooked?
The answer is probably yes, but it isn’t clear how addicted the network is to the Olympics.
CTV and its Olympics partner Rogers Media own the rights to the 2012 London Summer Games, but in a few months the question will be: What about media rights to Sochi in 2014 and Rio de Janeiro in 2016?
Sometime this summer, the International Olympic Committee will invite U.S. broadcasters to Lausanne where, to acquire rights to Sochi and Rio, they will be allowed to fork over something close to the $2-billion (all figures U.S.) that NBC paid for Vancouver and London.
Then it will be the Canadian broadcasters’ turn to endow the IOC with tens of millions of dollars for Sochi and Rio. The CBC will bid and CTV, too, but the question is how much.
The CTV-Rogers consortium paid $90-million for the Vancouver rights, and lost money on the coverage, probably something in the $20-million range.
CTV-Rogers overpaid for London, $63-million, because it was determined to win the Vancouver rights, and the two Olympics were auctioned off as a package.
The price for Sochi and Rio? I wouldn’t be surprised if Sochi fetched a Turin 2006 sort of fee, which was $28-million. Like Turin, the live programming from Sochi will air in the morning and afternoon in North America, rather than prime time. That diminishes the value.
What’s more, the participation of the NHL in Sochi is very much a question mark and there are concerns about Sochi being ready.
Rio has more value because of the exotic location and the fact the big events will air live in prime time in North America. The CBC paid $45-million for Beijing. Rio will probably fetch about the same.
However, the value of mobile and online Olympics rights has escalated since Turin and Beijing. So, factoring in the digital rights, Sochi and Rio will fetch, say, $80- to $90-million.
It is speculated the CTV’s interest in the Olympics will quickly disappear now that Vancouver is over. It has even been rumoured that CTV, after losing money on Vancouver, will sell the London rights back to the IOC at 50 cents to the dollar, and then the IOC will flip the rights to the CBC, for, say, $40-million. CTV would lose $31.5-million (half of its rights fee of $63-million), but better that than taking $40-million loss on London.
But all of this is gossip. According to sources, CTV has every intension of televising the London Games, doesn’t expect to lose money, and is keen to hang onto the rights past London.
“From an audience standpoint, Vancouver was a huge success for CTV,” said a source. “And keep in mind the Olympics are like a drug. Once you get on it, it’s hard to get off. People tend to become Olympic converts.”
As well, Vancouver probably taught CTV a lesson in money management. The network, for example, produced its own telecast of the opening ceremony and brought in U.S. director Louis V. Horvitz, a six time Emmy Award winner and 12 time director of the Academy Awards, to direct it. In a CTV news release, Horvitz was described as legendary. Ivan Fecan, CTV’s CEO, called Horvitz “the best director in the world.” The cost of CTV producing its own opening ceremony has been estimated at going deeply into six figures, perhaps close to seven figures.
“Meanwhile, some thought the host feed was much better,” a source said. “It was directed by a Canadian guy, and they had 50 cameras as opposed to the 23 or 24 that CTV used.
“Decisions like that are swinging dick decisions as opposed to smart Olympic decisions.”
Filed under Article Posts · · 
Email This Article
CTV's coverage(which we couldn't get here in the States due to Mr. Ebersol's dictatorship status at NBC sports) looks like it was a bummer. The lack of French coverage outside Quebec really threw the Consortium into chaos. If CTV-Rogers had allowed Radio-Canada into the party, none of this would have happen.
William, it's Louis J. not V. Horvitz and he was paid $300,000.00 by CTV to direct the Open and Close Ceremonies. He really botched the closing: missing solos, going to closeups when he should have been on a wide shot, etc. Looked like amateur hour.
I don't understand why no one has jumped on the Keith Pelly resignation (firing) rumour.
Pelley will go on his own accord if you read the last article that Mr. Houston wrote.
I am just curious, does anyone know which draws a larger TV audience in North America, Winter or Summer games?
In the US, it's the summer games, by a long shot.
The last line says it all…a little less "swinging" and perhaps some due diligence done on the part of the Consortium it would have been clear there was no need to drop 6 (7?) figures on the opening ceremonies…let alone the on air disaster the closing was. It was clear & obvious "The Canadian Guy" directing the world feed, who by the way was directing his 11th Olympic Games, along with numerous other international games had done his due diligence. From an insider who was in a position to view all three productions from inside the IBC there is little doubt the CTV and NBC production teams did not know or understand the show as well as the world feed. I feel sorry for the Canadian audience as there were numerous important parts, of both shows that Canadians never saw but the rest of the world did!
…and where would one get copies of the opening and closing ceremonies as produced by the host broadcaster? I was not impressed with the CTV versions and would like to see the superior host versions.
a lot of questions in the first three paragraphs of your article, William.. rightfully so and i think you are just scratching the surface. these questions need to be asked. also, the question of whether or not the coverage of the olympics was successful has to be asked. underestimating audience is not good, and means revenue didn't meet its potential. unfortunately the viewership will decrease for london so rates will go down and it is highly unlikely that the consortium could break even. almost mathematically impossible, actually.. it wouldn't be a surprise to see a deal struck with cbc to become partners with sportsnet/rogers radio + tsn for london in order for ctv to not only recover some dough, but also to limit the hit of london.. if ctv decides to keep the london games, they will certainly need to be more creative and proactive in their advertising campaign seeing as canada is such a winter-sports nation.
however, if cbc were to send in one of their dragons to negotiate, it would be clear that ctv's valuation is too far off and ctv could be stuck with london.. it would be a complete shock if ctv were to gain rights past london, but if they do it's because their rock bottom offer will be slightly higher than the cbc bid. but does anyone really expect cbc to lose the rights to the olympics ever again?
Zzzzzzzzzz….
"The CBC has strong shows…" ???
Sad shit is what the CBC has. Even the flagship Fifth Estate has become a place to whip the right.
HNIC has always been its best product and with the awful decline of the NHL product, they are in deep doo-doo.
If it wasn't for the taxpayer's money ….
Let's not turn this into a left-right thing, please. The trend of some to look at everything throug a left-right prism tends to politicize and divide rather than inform the debate.
Rumors about CTV wanting out of the Olympics business? Who would have thought!
As predicted, the fallout from the Fecan/Pelley spending orgy is spreading. It is not surprising that the rebellion is rooted at CTV, since its owners are financially accountable to their shareholders and stakeholders. While that should also hold true for Rogers, they are still continuing to sell the myth of convergence, where the premium paid for the Olympics rights is justified by the potential recovery via revenue from on-line and mobile platforms. The fly in the ointment is, that the value of digital rights remains hard to monetize due the fact that advertisers, in addition to having to deal with the dubious nature of television ratings calculation, are having a tough time getting their heads around concepts like hits, page views, user sessions, distinct visitors, etc. to justify the spent required on this playing field. The reality is, that digital platforms are largely “throw ins” used to sell television ads. Even following debacles such as AOL/Time Warner, Canwest, BCE and Quebecor, Rogers will stick to its guns and perpetuate the convergence model. In all likelihood Rogers will find another partner (Shaw/Global anyone?) and buy out CTV to stay in the Olympics game. The flip to CBC is just a Richard Stursberg/Scott Moore wet dream.
It doesn’t seem realistic to expect the CBC to enter the Olympic bidding fray any time soon.
Even though the CBC is a bottomless pit that operates without the restrictions that common sense accountability calls for, it seems that in this period of government austerity caused by a record deficit, any outrageous spending by the CBC would result in a huge public outcry. Instead the Ceeb will continue to produce, to paraphrase Theo Caldwell, “unwatchable monstrosities” such as Little Mosque on the Prairie, The Hour, Heartland, Being Erica and Love, Hate & Propaganda, to name a few. All this off course covered by the mantle of upholding Canadian culture and heritage for just $1 billion per year.
As far as the forthcoming bidding for 2014 and 2016 is concerned, the initial interest from U.S. broadcasters has been lukewarm at best. NBC has surely learned its lesson with Vancouver and now that it is in the hands of Comcast, they will probably lowball. The chance that either Viacom or Disney will throw $2 billion guaranteed at them is unlikely. For the IOC to get anything near that amount they will need to look at global rights, with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Group as most likely taker (something he tried before).
That would mean a Fox Olympics, a prototype of which was just perpetrated on us by the Consortium. There may be hope for Pelley yet.
Disagree with you completely on your comment about CBC productions. They rate quite highly with me and my circle of family and friends. Personally, I watch all the ones you mentioned …except Heartland…
Insider…you have posted insightful posts in the past…but this may be your worst. The CBC has strong shows and has dogs……but with your last post you moved from being an informed critic who added to our understanding to yet another sad and angry bloggger. Sad.
A sad and angry blogger who works for the CBC, no less. So incredibly bitter.
CTV and Rogers had great Olympic sports coverage! BUT…their coverage of the opening and closing ceremonies was awful…now I know why! They should have gone with the host feed…I watched NBC's west-coast feed and they had much better camera angles…it was like watching a completely different show!…a much better show!
It would look bad for CTV if they even considered reselling the 2012 rights back to the IOC. If that was the case, do you think the IOC would ever consider them for further Olympics TV Rights? It doesn't make sense! CTV will make some massive changes and learn from Vancouver. They did go overboard with production in Vancouver and I hope for their sake that they don't make the same mistake twice. I am quite sure that it will go with the host feed in most events and I hope the Dan and Jessie from MTV and the E-talk crap stays in Toronto in 2012.
They don't care how bad it looks, they just wanted to keep the Vancouver games off the CBC. Anyone with any status in the sports TV bidness cut their chops at the Corp and then split because too many people were standing in the ladder above them. All this exercise was ever about was the feeding of some unbelievably massive egos.
Swinging indeed. Uber God Fecan has a horn on for the Olympics and will try and keep them just to spite the CBC.
The Network has absolutely no intention of giving them up especially in 2012, so dream on.
Thankfully all these Yo Yo's just run a Television mafia and only affect the lives of tens of thousands of people's lives.
Can you imagine what these pinheads would do in Ottawa?
The last line sums up pretty much everything in a nutshell.
Leave out the swinging part, decisions like the ones above are made by dicks.
Example in the States: Jay Leno. Discuss.
The last phrase describes Brace and Fecan to a "T". Truth of the matter is they're both a couple of d@#&ks.
“Decisions like that are swinging dick decisions as opposed to smart Olympic decisions.” That's a hilarious quote Bill. Kudos to your source for that one- and for telling it like it is. Let's be honest, from all I read these guys were losing money so why would they continue?
Right on. Sadly, as most who've worked in it can attest, the sports television industry is run with the same set of rules, values and petty grievances and vendettas that you'd see during any grade five recess. See Rick Brace "saving" the HNIC tune (this was just petty pay back to Scott Moore for a years old perceived transgression) or Paul Romanuk being frozen out of the Canadian play by play scene because he made a few jokes on a lousy morning show that no one listened to almost 10 years ago. The people who were running this show (Fecan, Brace and co.) had to show those CBC types "how it was done" so they could be the big little boys in the school yard.