Sources of Olympic Revenue

With the conclusion of the Beijing pyrotechnics, both on and off the field of competition, it is worth considering the breakdown in the sources of revenue for the Olympic Games. Based on figures provided to Business Week by the International Olympic Committee, as reported in the August 11 issue of that magazine, the projected revenue sources were as follows:

Broadcast rights 50%
Sponsorship 40%
Ticketing 8%
Other (including licensing) 2%

Based on estimated revenues of $3 billion, that means that some some undefined portion of $60,000,000 (I hope that I have my math right!) in revenues can be attributed to sales of licensed products in connection with the two-week event. Being a licensing person at heart, the disproportion between the amount of revenues due to sponsorships and licensing is striking indeed.

This disproportionality is especially noteworthy if the amount of the sponsorship revenues collected by the IOC will be compressed into a shortish period of time (If any readers have further information on this point, I would be delighted to be enlightened.) The $60,000,000 amount is a graphic reminder that it takes a lot of sales of licensed items to reach substantial royalty aggregates. That said, it will be fascinating to see how many post-event Olympic items will be sold, and what is the ultimate ratio between the sponsorship and licensing revenues.