FOX Planning Bid for Olympics Coverage

Despite the fact that NBC Universal took a whopping $200 million dollar hit by airing the 2010 Winter Olympics, Fox, the only network of the Big Four to have never showed them, is keen to bid on the upcoming games.

"It's one of those greats things to have. It's an iconic event," Fox Sports chief David Hill told Variety. "We will make a strong bid next time around."

With the TV rights for both the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, up for grabs, the broadcast nets are getting their ducks in a row -- even though the International Olympic Committee has yet to decide when it will open the bidding. (Insiders predict it'll happen in the Fall.)

During its recent Vancouver coverage, NBC, which will air London's 2012 Summer Games, took a lot of heat from fans who resented the rejiggering of events to allow the "big ticket" competitions to run during prime time when ad rates are at their peak.

"People say, 'How dare they time shift,' but for the average person, they want to watch at 8 o'clock at night," Hill said in defense of the Peacock network. Such "time-shifting" may detract from the authenticity of the competition but DVR-less fans who were at work or school when their favorites like Evan Lysacek, Shaun White and Apolo Ohno were competing, surely appreciated the effort.

Though it would love to win the bid, Fox won't be the only network throwing its hat into the ring. ABC/ESPN, having recently lost its bid for the March Madness NCAA tournament to CBS (which will pay a staggering $10.8 billion for 14-years of coverage), is likely to make a play and, despite its recent losses, NBC, whose merge with Comcast Corp is pending, may also have its eye on the rings.