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USOC, Comcast end effort to launch Olympics network

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The U.S. Olympic Committee and Comcast have decided to walk away from a deal brokered last summer to launch an Olympics network, according to a report in the online edition of Sports Business Journal.

Patrick Sandusky, chief communications officer for the USOC, confirmed the end of the Comcast partnership, telling the journal, “The USOC and Comcast have decided it’s currently not the right time to create an Olympic channel.”The decision, which ends the USOC’s determined effort to have its own channel, comes as no surprise. When the joint venture was announced last July, it triggered a storm of criticism, first from the International Olympic Committee and then NBC, which had just purchased Universal Sports, a network whose primary content was Olympics-related news and events.

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The report, citing unnamed sources, said the USOC and Comcast had not worked on it since last August, primarily because of Comcast’s subsequent and pending acquisition of NBC.

-- Debbie Goffa

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