IOC hits TV with hard sell

The prospect of watching snow-based manoeuvres before the spectacular Italian Alps offers sports fans relief from the traditional midwinter diet of football, football and football. Over the next two weeks the Winter Olympics in Turin will create new heroes from sports as diverse as curling, biathlon and the luge.

But for Timo Lumme, arguably the single most influential person in the global sports business, the lighting of the Olympic flame in the Alps represents an unprecedented commercial opportunity. As managing director of the Broadcast and Marketing Services division of the International Olympic Committee - the most commercially successful sporting body in the world - Lumme can set the agenda for the relationship between sport and the media for years.

So, when he describes this Winter Games as the "first major high-definition TV event", it's best to take note. When it comes to making money, where the IOC leads, others follow.

By bundling the Winter Games with the summer version, the IOC has won huge fees from broadcasters. Europe's free-to-air broadcasters, including the BBC, have agreed to pay $578m (£325m) for the rights to show the Turin Games and 2008 event in Beijing (in a deal brokered by the European Broadcast Union).

The same group is to pay $750m for the 2010 and 2012 Games, Vancouver and London. Broadcasters also commit up to $150m worth of airtime to promotion of the Olympics through extra programming in the run-up. Jacques Rogge, president of the IOC, has predicted that revenues from broadcast rights for the 2012 London Olympics will top $3.5bn. This would be 40 per cent up on the total for Beijing.

The period of the new contracts corresponds with the age of the personal video recorder. The revenue surge at IOC headquarters in Lucerne is due in no small part to broadcasters' desire to protect advertising revenue by buying live content not vulnerable to "time shifting".

"There is a trend in increasing rights fees because of the premium on live events, whether that is the election of a Pope or the men's downhill," says Lumme. "What the Olympics offers to a television partner is a huge live audience. For free-to-air networks their strength is that for events of national importance they still provide the only way a large proportion of the national audience can be aggregated".

He says beyond the rights fees paid, there is an increase in the hours given over to live coverage of the event by broadcasters. Much of this increase in coverage in the UK is due to the BBC's expansion into digital television. This means an increase in the corporation's output, from 100 hours in Salt Lake in 2002 to 500 in Turin. Few of the 84 sports on offer will fail to make it on to the screen in some form.

"For us, these are the high definition games," says Lumme, "the first time the whole of the Olympics will be broadcast in HDTV. Unfortunately, Europe is lagging behind in the evolution of this, and will miss the boat for the World Cup too. In the US, and in markets such as Japan and Korea, HDTV is a very important part of improving television coverage."

It is intriguing to hear the IOC's commercial head talking so positively about new technology. It was only a short time ago that the IOC took a dim view of the internet as a medium. In Sydney, 2000, at the peak of the dot.com boom, the IOC prevented coverage of the games on the web.

However, the entry of broadband into mainstream media, and impending convergence of broadband delivered television (IPTV) with digital TV, has led to a more enlightened view.

This is in part because new media platforms offer a fresh revenue stream. Content such as the Olympics is easily streamed via broadband and mobile phone. For the IOC, the dilemma is how to extract that extra money without jeopardising the exclusivity of broadcasters.

Broadband rights are currently bundled into contracts bought by IOC television partners. However, to promote broadband as a medium, there is a "use it or lose it" clause. This is aimed at preventing TV networks "warehousing" the rights.

"We see our primary partners as television broadcasters," says Lumme. "They are becoming multi-media operators. They are best placed to ensure their viewers get the best coverage rather than us trying to guess what is best for the audience."

The corporate sector is also - perhaps surprisingly - showing a keen interest in associating itself with the games.The previous winter games in Salt Lake City were a nadir in the IOC's long history, tainted by a money for votes corruption scandal. Sponsors distanced themselves.

One such company was John Hancock, the New York financial services company; its chief executive publically tore the Olympic rings off his merchandise. However, John Hancock renewed its contract as a Olympic sponsor two years later.

Sponsorship income accounts for 40 per cent of IOC revenue. The top tier, The Olympic Partners (TOP), consist of 11 major brands including McDonald's, Samsung and Coca-Cola.

Sponsor revenue from the cycle from 2005 to 2008, which takes in Turin and Beijing, was worth $866m (up from $663m for Salt Lake and Athens). Coca-Cola has renewed its contract until the 2020 Olympics. It's worth $60m (£33.7m) for each four-year games cycle.

For this sort of cash, the sponsors get very little in terms of marketing presence. The Olympics has a clean-event policy, which means TV from Turin will not include corporate logos or perimeter-board advertising.

This is how sponsors like it, says Lumme. "They are buying into an association with the Olympic brand, whether that is the lump in the throat, or the values of the movement."

The ultimate alpine challenge

Photographer Shaun Botterill will spend the next two weeks clinging to neck-breakingly steep, icy Italian mountainsides. In temperatures of below minus 10 degrees, he'll be waiting for skiers to flash past in their reflective catsuits, giving him three frames to capture an image.

Covering such alpine events typically involves a two-hour mountainside trek, laden with a 20kg equipment pack. Botterill, 38, will have already spent several days checking out the best vantage points.

But despite careful preparation, there is always the chance that he will be moved by an official at the last minute - or that the weather might change drastically. But Botterill appears undaunted. "You only get the chance to do it every four years and they've got a new course this year, so nobody knows where the best positions are. It's a nice challenge," he says.

For the men's downhill - "the ultimate speed event" - there might be 30 or 40 photographers battling it out for the best picture. He thinks the skiers are "all off their trolleys," since they typically reach speeds of over 80mph, risking serious injury and even death on a two-minute downhill course.

But it's a risky business for the photographers as well. In Salt Lake City, Botterill saw a photographer in trouble. "He didn't have the right footwear. He slipped, hit a tree and broke his pelvis in two places."

Even with the right kit, the photographers have got to keep mindful. "Last year at the World Ski Championships a skier crashed and came flying towards us," Botterill says. "Luckily we got out of the way just in time.

This year in Turin there will be even more testing conditions,as many of the events are scheduled for the evening. But Botterill hopes the physical hardships will bring rewards. "There'll be an angle there with the snow pluming up from the skis and floodlights in the background. You might get a great sunset. I hope I'm there that day when it will make a picture."

Sophie Morris