While Marina Hyde’s article (Faster, higher, dearer: TV carve-up reveals new Olympic vision, 2 July) was, as ever, highly entertaining, it only had a loose relationship with the facts. The Olympic Games have not been “placed behind a paywall”. The Games are a “listed event”, meaning that, by law, they must be shown on free-to-air (FTA) television. The International Olympic Committee also stipulates its own commitments that at least 200 hours of the summer Games – the equivalent of over 10 hours a day – must be shown on FTA television. This commitment specifically mentions “high viewer interest events”, such as the opening and closing ceremonies, the men’s 100m athletics final, or any medal round in which a competitor representing the country is participating.

This minimum guarantee of 200 hours of FTA coverage is comparable to what the BBC showed on its FTA channels for London 2012. The 2,500 hours of FTA TV coverage which Ms Hyde refers to is incorrect. This was in fact 2,500 hours across all media platforms, including online. In total, the IOC produces over 3,500 hours (equivalent of over 145 days) of coverage of each edition of the Olympic Games; and it is simply not possible to put all of this on FTA television during the period of the Games. On top of that, the BBC remains the Olympic broadcaster until at least the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, and still has the opportunity to sublicense FTA rights for the Games in 2022 and 2024. As the BBC itself said in a statement on Monday: “It is not unprecedented for sports rights to be sold on a pan-territory basis, and the BBC has acquired other sports rights via sub-licensing deals with either agencies or broadcasters.”

Finally, regarding the “IOC’s waffle about how the money will benefit the athletes” – this “waffle” is in fact a reality. The IOC is a not-for-profit organisation that distributes more than 90% of the revenue it makes, the equivalent of over $3.25m a day, to support sports, sports organisations and ultimately the athletes, all over the world.
Mark Adams
IOC spokesman