BBC must bid alone for Olympics

The BBC will have to bid individually for the 2012 Olympics against rivals such as Sky and ITV after the International Olympics Committee (IOC) ruled the joint bid by the Corporation and other European public service broadcasters was too low. "It is the first time in more than 50 years that the IOC has rejected a media rights pitch from the European Broadcasting Union, which bids collectively and then sells the rights on to broadcasters across the continent, including the BBC," reports the Guardian. "An EBU spokeswoman said its bid for the 2014 winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Olympics, which has yet to be awarded to a host city, had been turned down by the IOC because the EBU had not offered enough money."