Array

SEOUL, Apr 6 (Reuters) The global broadcasting rights deal for the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics and 2012 London Summer Games is expected to be about 30 percent higher than the previous Turin/Beijing rights package, the IOC said today.

Broadcasting rights for the 2010-2012 Games have so far fetched 2.9 billion dollars under deals struck with the United States, Canada and Europe, excluding Italy.

The U S. deal alone is worth 2 billiondollars, an increase of about 35 percent, while Canada saw a 100 percent increase to 160 million dollars due to Vancouver's hosting of the 2010 event.

''This kind of increase leads us to believe this should not be an exception,'' International Olympic Committee member Richard Carrion told reporters.

Carrion said he had started negotiations with Korean broadcasters for the rights package. The previous two Games package deal was sold in Korea for 18.4 million dollars.

''We are taking a wider view of the package this time,'' he said of the current negotiations.

Carrion, who also headed negotiations for the U S and Canadian deals and will soon start talks in Australia, said the IOC was interested in appointing a single broadcaster who would act as a ''gatekeeper of the bundle''.

That broadcaster would then fragment it into smaller packages taking advantage of new media, instead of the usual IOC approach of selling the rights in an already pre-determined package deal.

He said new technologies including broadband and mobile phones opened up new opportunities for broadcasting rights.

''The Olympic Games are a truly worldwide event,'' said Carrion, an IOC executive board member and a member of the TV rights and new media commission.

IOC President Jacques Rogge told National Olympic Committees this week he expected the final rights figure to be about $3.3 billion dollars.

REUTERS DH RN1329