South Korea Wins Bid to Host 2018 Winter Olympics

NBC paid more than $4.3 billion for the rights to air the Games through 2020

Pyeongchang 2018!

The small South Korean city with the big name will host the 2018 Winter Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee announced Wednesday.

Also read: NBC Wins Olympic Games TV Rights Through 2020, IOC Confirms

Pyeongchang was named on 63 of the 95 ballots cast by the committee. The other two final contenders were Munich, Germany, and the French town of Annecy.

This will be the first Winter Olympics to take place in an Asian city outside of Japan, which hosted in Sapporo in 1972 and in Nagano in 1998.

In June, NBC re-upped its right to air the Winter and Summer Games through 2020 by paying $4.38 billion. It beat ESPN and Fox in a bidding war.

Given the time differences involved between South Korea and the United States, there will no doubt be tape-delay issues, but NBC has said that it is planning more live coverage than ever before through its various network and online mediums.

The 2014 Winter Games will be held in Sochi, Russia.

NBC has broadcast every Summer Olympics since 1988 and every Winter Games since 2002.

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