Seven has big plans for Olympics
The Seven Network has won wide-ranging Australian broadcast rights for the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics and the 2020 Tokyo Games.
It also has the rights to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea and the Summer Youth Olympics in China, starting next week.
International Olympic Committee president Thomas Bach called the deal a "homecoming" yesterday, exactly two years before the opening ceremony in Rio de Janeiro.
The Olympics return to Seven after Channel 9 and Foxtel covered the 2012 London Olympics and Channel 10 had the Sochi Winter Olympics this year.
Seven West Media chief executive Tim Worner said the rights covered multiple platforms, including online, radio and free-to-air and subscription TV. The network aimed to deliver Australia's most comprehensive and technologically advanced Games coverage.
"Everyone knows the media landscape is changing at breakneck speed," Mr Worner said.
"The way our coverage of these events is produced and distributed across all platforms to all Australians will be revolutionised in the lifetime of this deal."
Mr Bach said the deal involved an unprecedented commitment to promoting the IOC's core principles of "Olympism" across all media.
"Seven has a lot of experience in broadcasting major sports and first broadcast an Olympic Games in Melbourne in 1956," he said.
"We are delighted that we will work with Seven until at least 2020."
Seven has a long history with the Olympics from Melbourne in 1956 to Beijing in 2008.
In Melbourne, one production truck and three cameras were used to deliver six hours of live coverage daily. In 1980, it broadcast 100 hours of action from Moscow.
In Sydney, it welcomed the Games back to Australia.
The 2016 Rio Games marks the 60th anniversary of Seven's partnership with the IOC.
Mr Worner said the network was also in pole position to extend its rights to cover the 2022 Winter Olympics and 2024 Olympics.
"The Olympic Games are much more than just a sporting event," he said. "This is still the greatest show on Earth and we are both privileged and excited to bring them and all they stand for to Australians."
