Unlike Dick Ebersol, Fox would broadcast Olympics live

The head of Fox Sports says that if the network is successful in its bid to televise the 2014 Winter and 2016 Summer Games--slated for Russia and Rio, respectively--it will broadcast them live.

"We plan on doing everything live," Fox Sports president Eric Shanks told USA Today on Wednesday. "It just makes sense."

That plan would be a departure from the way NBC, which has had a hold on Olympic TV rights since 1996, has aired them--saving the high-profile events for primetime on tape-delay.

Fox and NBC, along with Disney-owned ESPN, will plead their multibillion-dollar cases to the International Olympic Committee in Switzerland early next month.

The live Fox approach also means that Dick Ebersol, the legendary NBC Sports executive who announced his resignation earlier this month, isn't likely to land at his longtime rival.

Ebersol, who produced NBC's Olympics coverage, has been a firm believer in the network's tape-delay approach, despite the fact that anyone with an Internet connection is aware of the results ahead of time.

And Ebersol's apparent unwillingness to budge on that strategy was apparently a point of contention during his contract negotiations with Comcast, which installed Ebersol as chief of the NBC Sports Group after its takeover of NBC Universal.

Executives at Comcast deny that the tape-delay rift played any part in fizzled talks with Ebersol. (The $212 million NBC lost on the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, perhaps, could have something to do with it.)

When Ebersol announced his resignation, some in the sports TV business speculated that News Corp. chief Rupert Murdoch "might be inclined to bring Ebersol on board simply to dig the knife in Comcast's side."

"If I were Rupe, I'd pay any amount of money to bring him in," one unnamed executive said at the time. "Fox is in a position to grab a person who knows everybody and can get them the best deals in sports. That's a unique talent and there aren't many people [like Ebersol] who offer that."

But by "doing it live," Fox doesn't appear to be have any serious interest in courting him.