Olympics Spurns Murdoch Again

The International Olympic Committee sold the European television rights to each Olympics from 2000 to 2008 for $1.442 billion to the European Broadcasting Union, bypassing a $1.8 billion bid from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp.

This was the second recent IOC snub of Murdoch, whose Fox Network was passed over last July in favor of NBC for U.S. rights to the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. It reflects the Olympic committee’s concern that Murdoch’s European involvement might have meant putting key Olympic events on pay TV.