据报道，2004雅典奥运会仅靠出售电视转播权一项，就为国际奥委会带来了15亿美元的收益，几乎是1984年洛杉矶奥运会的5倍。外电报道如下：The National Broadcasting Company in the US purchased the television rights for 793 million US dollars, the highest price paid for an event of this kind. But the company still earned net profits of over 200 million US dollars due to high audience ratings and advertising revenues of around 1 billion US dollars. audience rating表示“收视率”，因为rating除了“等级; 级别; 估价”等常见含义外，还表示“（电台、电视台调查后确定的）节目受欢迎的程度”。

国际奥委会的奥运收入主要来源于四个方面，电视转播权、顶级赞助商的广告、奥运吉祥物等商品的特许经营权和奥运比赛的门票。