MTG buys rights to broadcast 2014 and 2016 Olympics in the Baltics

Lietuvos Ryto Televizija, another free-to-air TV channel, will broadcast almost all Olympic sports, Paulius Skučas, the channel’s public relations and marketing head, told BNS.

“We will broadcast most Olympic competitions but will not broadcast the opening and the closing ceremonies,” he told BNS.

LNK, a yet another free-to-air commercial channel, has said that it will broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. According to LNK, a commercial channels will broadcast the Olympic Games for the first time in Lithuania‘s television history.

The companies would not disclose the amount paid for those rights.

MTG said on Tuesday that MTG-owned Viasat Broadcasting has secured exclusive pay-TV, pay-per-view and online rights to all events from both Olympic Games in all three Baltic countries from the international sports marketing agency Sportfive International. MTG will have "first pick" for each Baltic country to show one sport from each of the Games on its free-TV channels in each of the three countries.

LNK acquired the rights to broadcast the opening and closing ceremonies from Switzerland’s Sportfive.

The 2014 Winter Olympics will take place in Sochi, Russia, on 7-23 February, and the 2016 Summer Olympics – in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, on 5-21 August.

The Olympics have so far been broadcast in Lithuania by the public broadcaster Lietuvos Televizija (LTV). The 2012 Summer Olympics, which will take place in London on 27 July - 12 August, will be broadcast by LTV as well.