The German companies ARD and ZDF jointly bid for the rights to the 2015 and 2016 Games

For an amount of 90 million euros, ARD and ZDF have jointly submitted a joint offer to the IOC following the rejection of the European Union's offer.

According to the Europa Press agency, citing a source from the newspaper Der Spiegel, ARD and ZDF have presented a joint offer of around 90 million euros to obtain the broadcasting rights for Germany for the 2014 Winter Olympic Games and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. According to these sources, the German networks were forced to make a proposal after the International Olympic Committee (IOC) rejected an offer from the European Broadcasting Union for a package of both editions of the event to negotiate individual agreements on better terms.

Germany, Spain, France and the United Kingdom will be managed by the IOC, while other European territories will have the sports agency SPORTSFIVE, selected over the EBU. Der Spiegel claims to know that pay television Sky Germany would also be in this race to acquire the rights with an offer that would exceed 100 million.

The decision to reject the EBU's offer angered ARD and ZDF, which are members of the 59-year-old confederation that has traditionally been responsible for broadcasting Olympic events. Faced with its refusal to the EBU regarding the 2014 Sochi Games and the 2016 summer Games for which Tokyo, Chicago, Rio de Janeiro and Madrid are competing, the IOC claimed that it could obtain greater profits if it concluded separate agreements with individual countries.