NBC deal could be key to Beijing's Olympic future

When the International Olympic Committee (IOC) extended its US TV contract for an eye-watering $7.75 billion last week, keeping the Olympic Games on broadcaster NBC until 2032, shock waves rippled through the sports industry.

First and foremost, no one saw this coming, not least NBC's rivals who were not even given the chance to tender a bid, as is customary, with IOC President Thomas Bach saying he saw no reason "to take a risk" with another channel.

The NBC deal may actually end up having more of an influence on China. With US rights locked up for the next two decades, NBC's input will become more powerful than ever before - despite what the IOC might say in public.

NBC executives will pressure the IOC to select future host cities that are to their liking - and in US-friendly time zones - and that could be crucial as Beijing's bid for the 2022 Winter Olympic Games is considered.

The IOC watched video presentations by all five bids last week, but it is increasingly looking like a two-horse race between Beijing and Almaty in Kazakhstan. Lviv's bid is dead in the water given the continuing un-certainty in Ukraine, Krakow was already a long shot before the resignation of a key committee member, and Oslo is reeling after the junior coalition partner in the Norwegian government voted recently against going ahead with the bid.

While Almaty would fit the recent trend in awarding large-scale international sporting events to new territories in order to further develop the sport, NBC executives would surely be far more interested in a China-based Games given the myriad story lines its producers could follow outside the sporting venues themselves.

Neither time zone is particularly convenient for NBC, but the rescheduling of the Olympic swimming events in 2008, for example, proves there are ways of getting around these issues. It's strange to think Beijing's Olympic future might be -decided on the other side of the world, but in sport, dollars tend to win out.