Ebersol Clashes With NBCU Brass Over Olympic Bid

Is Comcast unwilling to shell out for the 2014 and 2016 Games?

The upcoming bidding war for TV rights to the Olympics is putting a strain on the relationship between NBC Universal’s Olympics chief Dick Ebersol and tight-fisted Comcast executives, sources told the New York Post.

Executives are wondering if Ebersol—who has been in charge of all Olympics programming efforts since 2000, and every Summer Games broadcast since 1988—will be able to convince Comcast to shell out the big bucks for the 2014 and 2016 games. NBC outbid the competition for rights to the last round of Olympics broadcasting, but General Electric (then the majority owner of NBC) CEO Jeff Immelt admitted that they lost money on the games, and the Comcast brass might be unwilling to take that risk.

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