Tokyo will be the host city of the 2020 Summer Olympics, the International Olympic Committee announced Saturday.
Tokyo defeated Istanbul by a vote of 60 to 36. The other finalist, Madrid, was eliminated earlier. The announcement came during the IOC's 125th session from Buenos Aires.
"Tokyo is one of the world's most fascinating cities, and will provide a spectacular setting for the 2020 Olympic Games," said NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus in a statement. "Tokyo is particularly special to NBC as our rich Olympic heritage began there with the 1964 Olympic Games. We are excited to return in 2020, 56 years later, to broadcast what will be our 17th Olympic Games overall and 11th consecutive, and to bring the stories and performances of the world's greatest athletes home to American viewers."
Given the respective 13-hour and 16-hour time differentials from Tokyo to the East Coast and West Coast of the United States, a number of 2020 Olympic events will likely air live in primetime on NBCU networks.
The 2020 Games will be the last under NBCUniversal's current rights agreement, which begins in February with the 2014 Winter Olympics from Sochi, Russia. NBCU will pay out a grand total of $4.38 billion for the next four Olympics, with $1.418 billion of that going to the just-announced Tokyo Games. The 2016 Games will be held in
Rio de Janeiro, while the 2018 Winter Games will be hosted by Pyeongchang, South Korea.
NBCU's coverage of the 2012 London Games drew a little more than 219 million viewers, to become the most-watched TV event in U.S. history.
