Japan loses Olympic swimming final tug-of-war with American TV networks

Jul 20, 2018 | News On Japan

Jul 20, 2018 (Japan Today) - The Japan Swimming Federation conceded defeat on Thursday in its effort to have the Tokyo 2020 Olympics swimming finals aired domestically in the evening.

The finals now appear to be locked into morning time slots in Tokyo. Local organizers and FINA, swimming's world governing body, had pushed to move the finals from early evening to night time, but television rights holders in the United States wanted the marquee events scheduled for prime time in North America.

At a board meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland, on Wednesday, FINA deferred to the overseas broadcasters' demands and announced its agreement to hold morning finals in Tokyo.

"Unfortunately, it is what it is," said the federations' chairman, Tsuyoshi Aoki. "We wanted to show the Japanese fans the swimming finals in Japanese prime time."

The huge sums American broadcasters pay to televise the Olympics gives them a great deal of leverage when it comes to the timing of events.

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