The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has announced that it will issue an invitation to tender (ITT) for media rights in Europe to the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympic Winter Games (Italy) and the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games (the US).

Bidders will also be able to make offers for the Winter Olympics in 2030, for which the host has yet to be announced, and the Brisbane 2032 Olympics (Australia). However, it will not be possible to bid for these editions of the games alone.

Through the tender, the IOC will offer “various packages across media platforms”, and it will consider bids for single or multiple territories.

The 51 countries covered by the tender are Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, North Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, Ukraine, and Vatican City State.

The ITT will be issued on March 10 with additional information about the rights being offered, the bidding process, and the submission of bids.

Bids must be submitted by April 25 and will be assessed by the IOC “on their ability to meet the highest standards in broadcast quality, their capacity to reach the widest possible audience, their commitment to promoting the Olympic Games and the values of the Olympic Movement, and on the financial offer.”

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Parties wishing to receive the tender must sign a confidentiality agreement that can be requested from today (February 24) at mediasales@olympic.org.

IMG, the international sports and entertainment company, has been appointed for consultancy services relating to the tender.

US media giant Discovery currently holds rights in 50 European countries (excluding Russia) for four editions of the Olympics (both winter and summer) running from 2018 to 2024 through a €1.3-billion ($1.5-billion) deal struck in 2015.

These covered the 2018 winter games in Pyeongchang, the 2020 summer games in Tokyo (delayed to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic), and the recently completed 2022 winter games in Beijing, for which Discovery this week reported an audience of over 156 million European viewers across various online platforms.

The current deal also covers the upcoming 2024 summer games in Paris.