ESPN-ABC threw down the gauntlet to NBC this week when it said it would aggressively bid for U.S. rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games, and promise the IOC to air more of the content live.

NBC, which is televising its fifth consecutive Olympics and also owns rights to 2010 and 2012, tape delays almost all of the big events when the Olympics are held outside a U.S. time zone.

EPSN-ABC stopped short of saying it would televise everything live if it were the Olympic rights holder, as the CBC does, but executive vice-president John Skipper told The New York Times: “We serve sports fans. It's hard in our culture to fathom tape-delaying in the same way they have. I'm not suggesting it wasn't the smart thing for them [NBC] to do, but it's not our culture. We did Euro 2008 in the afternoon. We've done the World Cup in the middle of the morning. We have different audiences.”

In an interview this morning, Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, said NBC will pursue the 2014 and 2016 Olympics and is confident in its negotiating position.

“When it's time to bid, we will be there,'' Zenkel said. “I think the IOC is very happy with the way we cover the Olympics and the ratings suggest the audiences are very engaged and very satisfied with our coverage.

“I'm not going to predict the future, but when the time comes to bid we will be at the table and I think the IOC will be very anxious to hear what we have to say.”

In Canada, the CBC will compete for the rights to the 2014 and 2016 Games, Scott Moore, the head of CBC Sports, said.

The CTV-Rogers group owns the Canadian media rights to the 2010 and 2012 Olympics.

The 2014 Winter Olympics will be in Sochi, Russia.

Moore and Zenkel said they didn't know when bidding would take place for 2014 and 2016.