Olympics on Australian television

The Olympic Games have been broadcast on Australian television since 1956, coinsiding with both the introduction of television in Australia as well as the first year Australia hosted an Olympics. All three commercial networks have broadcast the Summer Olympics or Winter Olympics at least once, as have both public broadcasters and the dominant subscription television platform Foxtel, often sharing broadcasting rights with another network.

The Olympics is on the anti-siphoning list, meaning subscription television providers are banned from bidding for exclusive broadcasting rights, to ensure the sporting event is available on free-to-air television to all viewers.

Television in Australia was launched in order to ensure the first Olympics to be held in Australia could be broadcast. The only three television stations in Melbourne and Sydney shared the rights. For technical reasons, Sydney viewers received pictures up to a day later than Melbourne viewers.

Throughout the 2000s, the Seven Network held the broadcast rights to all the Summer and Winter Games, sharing rights with SBS in both 2004 and 2008. SBS primarily broadcast long form events and less popular sports.

Seven's coverage received multiple awards across the decade from the IOC at their media awards known as the Golden Rings. It was awarded 'Best Olympic Programme' in 2004, received three awards in 2006 and took the gold award for 'Best Olympic Programme' for the third year in a row in 2008.

The Nine Network and Foxtel jointly secured a broadcast rights package which included both the 2010 Winter Olympics and 2012 Summer Olympics, reportedly paying up to $120 million. It marked the first time a subscription television provider was an official Olympics broadcast partner in Australia. Foxtel provided 8 dedicated channels and was the first time more than one channel of Olympic coverage was offered, and also the first time Australian viewers could pay to access Olympic content beyond what was available on free to air television.

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