The International Olympic Committee (IOC) President seemed confident that the current worldwide economic crisis would not hinder negotiations.

 

He said: "We have had a lot of interest from broadcasters for 2014 and 2016.

 

"We have had contacts from all major broadcasters and even smaller broadcasters".

 

General Electric Co. NBC's parent company, said last October that NBC Universal generated more than $1 billion (£538 million) in revenue from the Beijing Olympics in the third quarter.

 

It seems certain, therefore, that NBC will bid for the 2014 and 2016 Games and Rupert Murdoch's Fox and CBS may also consider throwing their hat into the ring.

 

ESPN, who are owned by the Disney Corporation, have also said that they want to bid for the rights in conjunction with ABC.

 

Broadcasting rights are the IOC's biggest source of revenue with NBC paying $2.2 billion (£1.5 billion) for the 2010-12 Games deal in the US.

 

The Olympics are once again a highly desirable property for American broadcasters after the stunning success of the Beijing Games for NBC, who at their peak had more viewers than the next 12 channels combined.

 

The overall viewing figures were 14 per cent improvement over Athens in 2004 and the biggest for a summer Olympics held outside the US since the Barcelona Games in 1992.

 

The Games reached more than 83 per cent of television homes in the US.

 

The highlight was when Michael Phelps equalled Mark Spitz's 36-year-old record of winning seven medals in one Olympics, which attracted 39.5 million viewers, the largest audience for a Saturday since an episode of the The Golden Girls in 1989.

 

Rogge said the IOC's ruling Executive Committee would discuss the matter of the US television rights at a meeting in Denver at the end of next month.

 

Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympics while the host city for the 2016 Summer Games will be picked later this year.

 

Chicago, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo have all been short-listed and the IOC members will make a decision at their Session in Copenhagen on October 2.

 

A deal could even be delayed until after the host city is chosen to allow for more favoirable negotiating conditions depending on the outcome of the vote and the economic climate at the time.

 

Earlier this week, the IOC agreed a $316 million (£219.5 million) deal with German-based sports agency Sportfive to award the 2014 and 2016 Olympics broadcasting rights for 40 countries in Europe, but excluding the major markets of Britain, France, Germany and Spain which will be negotiated separately.

 

It followed the breakdown in talks between the IOC and the European Broadcasting Union, who had held the rights for nearly 50 years.

 

The IOC had wanted a fee of in excess of $1 billion (£704 million).