ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1995, Roanoke Times

DATE: Wednesday, December 13, 1995           TAG: 9512130054
SECTION: SPORTS                   PAGE: B-1  EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: NEW YORK
SOURCE: Associated Press 

BILLIONS GOING TO IOC NBC AGREES TO PAY $2.3 BILLION FOR GAMES

NBC will spend $2.3 billion for three Olympics Games that haven't even been awarded to host cities yet, increasing the network's sports rights bill to nearly $4 billion in a little more than four months.

NBC and the International Olympic Committee made the announcement jointly Tuesday, awarding NBC exclusive U.S. broadcast and cable rights to the 2004 and 2008 Summer Games and the 2006 Winter Olympics.

``The Olympic Games clearly are the most significant sports events in the world,'' said Bob Wright, NBC's president and CEO. ``This is important to our affiliates, important to our vision for the future and adds a great deal of value to our network.''

On Aug.7, NBC announced it had purchased similar rights to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia, and the 2002 Winter Games in Salt Lake City for $1.27 billion.

Add the $400 million NBC paid for major-league baseball in November, and the total sports check that NBC's parent company, General Electric, has picked up since August is about $3.97 billion.

``Having the Olympics through 2008 forms the cornerstone of our vision for NBC going into the next millennium,'' Wright said.

The IOC's TV negotiator, Dick Pound, said it ``demonstrated the value of the Olympic brand name'' that NBC would even consider a deal of this length and magnitude, especially since considering past history, none of the Olympics was likely to be in the United States.

At the same time, Pound said some Olympic sponsors ``are nibbling at my ear'' to extend the deal even further into the future, ``through another full Olympiad.''

For the 2004 Games, Pound said NBC will pay $793 million, a figure reached by inflating the $705 million it bid on Sydney by 3 percent per year for four years. The $894 million fee for the 2008 Summer Games was reached by adding another four years of 3 percent inflation.

Starting with the $545 million NBC will pay for Salt Lake City and using the same formula, NBC and the IOC arrived at a $613 million price tag for the 2006 Winter Olympics.

Once rights fees and production costs have been recovered through ad revenue, NBC and the IOC will split profits equally.

LENGTH: Medium:   52 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  AP. NBC Sports president Dick Ebersol and the network 
          will be carrying a torch for the Olympic Games. color.