April 26 - Plans to set-up a television network which drew worldwide criticism have been dropped by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC), they have announced.


The proposal had been criticised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) who feared it could be a potential threat to its own multi-billion dollar deal with NBC and was blamed for contributing to Chicago's humilating defeat in its bid to host the 2016 Olympics and Paralympics.

Patrick Sandusky, the spokesman for the USOC, said: "This is really just a formal acknowledgment of a decision made eight months ago.

"The timing for the network no longer made sense"

The USOC was going to partner with Comcast to form a network that would carry 24-hour Olympic-themed programming.

That was seen as a possible threat to NBC, which owns rights to the Olympics and many of its related events through 2012.

NBC and Comcast recently announced plans to merge, which could have made the plan more workable, but possibly less necessary, because NBC already has an Olympic-themed network, Universal Sports, on cable.


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