Pre-television: swimmers training for 1912 Stockhom Olympics (Photo, ©2011 International Olympic Committee, by Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND – The Beau Rivage in Lausanne will be bustling with sports and TV executives Monday and Tuesday 6-7 June, as intense bidding gets underway to win US broadcast rights for upcoming Olympic Games. Day’s end Tuesday, after a cocktail party where the bidders will socialize while waiting for news, should see the winner named—or just possibly, everyone adjourned to come back another day with another bid.
The stakes are high for all concerned: US rights provide about one-third of all IOC (International Olympic Committee) revenues for the Games and about half of the TV revenues, according to USA Today. The US Olympic Committee, whose senior executives are in Lausanne for the bidding, receives 12.75 percent of the rights, according to Insidethegames.
The Beeb will be watching closely for the impact on world Olympics coverage
And the BBC in London is watching closely because this week’s bids could have a major impact on their ability to continue covering the Olympics, reports the Telegraph in the UK.
The IOC is hearing bids from three networks, ESPN, Fox and NBC, who are vying for the potentially valuable TV broadcast rights to two and possibly four Olympic Games after the 2012 London Games.
“Nothing else in US sports costs so much and has so many variables. Airing the Olympics means selling millions of viewers on largely unknown athletes in sports few Americans watch,” USA Today sums up.
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Sale of CHF320 million and a profit of nearly CHF49m have given Geneva’s international airport a record year for 2010.
The airport published the figures 18 April.
Passenger numbers were up 4.91 percent for the year to 11.88 million, despite winter storms and volcanic ashes in the first part of 2010.
The number of passengers at the airport has grown by about one-third in the past 10 years.
London was the top destination in 2010, with 1.9 million flights, and Paris was the second with some 859,000 flights.
Share of traffic at Geneva Airport, by airline, 2010 (source: Geneva Airport) - click on image to view larger
The airport says it is in good financial health, with 2010 called a “transition year”, with CHF51m invested in completing renovations and starting work on a new east wing.
Robert Deillon, Geneva councillor with responsibility for the airport, said it invested CHF320m between 2006 and 2010 without turning to public funds.
Aviation revenue such as landing fees and passenger fees accounted for 49.5 percent of total income.
Non-aviation revenue, which includes income from shops (23.5 percent) was 50.5 percent of the total.
Balancing act, Swiss budget 2010
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss economy’s recovery in 2010 is good news for taxpayers: Bern confirmed Thursday morning 4 Novmber that, based on figures at the end of September 2010, the Swiss Confederation will have a CHF1.4 billion surplus rather than the CHF2b deficit which is in the budget. Cost-cutting and the economic recovery, which has resulted in more tax revenue from a variety of sources, are behind the improvement, whose likelihood was announced after Q2 figures were in. Companies have sought more financing, withholding tax is up 10 percent compared to a year earlier and value-added tax revenue has risen.
The iPhone was the product that made the difference: Apple surprised investors Tuesday 20 April by announcing sales of $13.5 billion for the three months that ended 27 March, a 49 percent increase over the same period a year earlier. Profits rose 90 percent to $3.07 billion. Computer sales were strong, but it was the iPhone’s 124 percent increase in revenue, thanks to new carriers, that was responsible for the steep climb.
Click on image to view larger (© Chappatte, distributed by Globe Cartoon. More cartoons on Chappatte’s web site. Geneva-based Patrick Chappatte works for the International Herald Tribune, for Geneva newspaper Le Temps, and for NZZ am Sonntag. All cartoons reproduced with permission.)
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swiss media companies’ revenues from advertising nosedived by 20.4 percent in 2009, falling to CHF1,585.7 million. Worst hit was the financial and economic press, down 30.1 percent and Sunday newspapers, with a 29.4 percent fall in ad sales. Dailies were close behind, with revenue down 21.6 percent. In December 2009 alone the daily papers saw their advertising income fall by 4.4 percent.
Swisscom sold 79,000 of the Apple iPhone 3GS model between its 19 June launch and the end of September 2009, according to industry media reports
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Swisscom, Switzerland’s dominant telecommunications company, posted revenues of CHF8.92 billion Wednesday 11 November, a figure 1.8 percent below that for the same period a year earlier. Net income rose, however, by 16.6 percent to CHF1.31b, “on a par with the previous year”, says the company. The results were published just days after the company was fined CHF219 million, accused by Switzerland’s competition watchdog of earlier (2007) having a broadband pricing policy that hampered competition. The company, which once had a monopoly of the Swiss industry, has denied the charges. In today’s press release on the company’s results for the first nine months of the year it says that the weak Swiss market was responsible for the lower revenues.
Links to other sites: Swisscom, Trading Markets
No place to run if you don't pay your ticket
Geneva, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Transports Publics Genevois (TPG) say that it is getting serious about people who don’t pay for public transportation. The company has added eight new inspectors to the 54 it already has, is increasing the frequency of its ticket controls on board Geneva’s buses and trams, and the fines are going up.
Swiss 2009 budget: not quite smiling, but close
Bern, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – The Swiss federal government appears set to finish 2009 in the black, despite the economic downturn. The federal finances department Wednesday 12 August announced it expects a CHF0.4 billion surplus, noting that while revenues are lower than what was budgeted, they are higher than feared earlier in the year.
Zurich, Switzerland (GenevaLunch) – Adecco, the world’s largest human resources company, possibly best known for supplying businesses with temporary workers, said revenues declined by 32 percent for the second quarter of 2009, compared to a year earlier. The group posted an operating loss for the period of €173 million.
Geneva, Switzerland and Kuala Lumpur (GenevaLunch) - Airlines are likely to lose $9 billion in 2009, twice the figure predicted in March, says Iata, the airline industry association. The figure was given by Iata’s director-general and CEO, Giovanni Bisignani, in his state of the industry address at the Geneva-based group’s annual general meeting this week in Kuala Lumpur. He says the revised figures reflect “a rapidly deteriorating revenue environment.” Bisignani pointed out that it took the industry three years to recover after the drop in travel post-September 2001, and that was after a 7 percent fall in reveneus. This time the revenue drop is expected to be 15 percent.
