- Joined
- Jun 21, 2003
I would be interested if anyone here can offer some facts into the state of ISU finances to show I am wrong and that ISU is indeed very prosperous.
Here are a couple of articles that discuss this. Phil Hersh wrote in January of this year:
"The International Skating Union, the sport's global governing body, is becoming more dependent than ever on its share of International Olympic Committee TV revenues -- about $6.5 million a year. As for ISU president Ottavio Cinquanta: 'He better hope the IOC gets more money from the Olympics because he is no longer getting that kind of money for his own product on television in the United States or Canada,' {David] Raith [executive director of the USFSA] said."
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/sports_blog/2009/01/ten-things-i-kn.html
It is my impression that the ISU per se does not get very much money from television deals for popular skating events in Japan and Korea, such as the World Team Trophy and the recent Yu-na Kim show featuring Michelle Kwan.
Janetfan said:BTW, the old US TV deal through ESPN used to pay what % of ISU's total income? Was it more than Japan and Europe combined?
I remember reading that the U.S. television money accounted for somewhat over 50% of the ISU's total budget, back in the glory days, 1994-1999. According to this Sonia Bianchetti article from 2007, the ABC contract that expired in 2004 was for $22,000,000 (for four years). The ESPN contract that went from 2004 to 2008 paid only only $5,000,000.
http://www.soniabianchetti.com/writings_openletter.html
As for the current situation, Cinquanta ended up giving NBC the television rights for Los Angeles Worlds last year for free. As far as I know the ISU does not get anything at all from U.S. television currently. (?)
About the USFSA, , the old ABC contract (1994-1999, then extended to 2007), was for $12,000,000 per year for television rights to U.S. events alone. The details of the present contract with NBC are a little fuzzy, but it seems to be based on revenue-sharing if they are able to sell enough sponsorship, rather than hard cash flowing from NBC to the USFSA's coffers.
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