IOC in good shape and revenues healthy: Rogge

International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Jacques Rogge speaks at the opening of the 120th IOC session at the Raffles Beijing Hotel, ahead of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, August 5, 2008.

BEIJING (Reuters) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) is a healthy organization with booming revenues, but needs to remain relevant to young people to continue to grow, president Jacques Rogge said on Tuesday.

"I believe (the state of the IOC) is very good," Rogge said in his address to the organization's 120th session.

He said broadcasting revenues alone for the 2009-2012 four-year cycle would beat expectations by several hundred million dollars, topping $3.8 billion, an increase of 40 percent compared with the previous cycle.

"The situation is very favorable," Rogge said.

The IOC had previously said it expected revenues of more than $3.3 billion from broadcasting rights for 2009-2012.

"I have to warn you that this is purely virtual money," Rogge said. "We will only get the 3.8 billion if the Vancouver 2010 and the London 2012 Games are successful."

Rogge also said the IOC's top sponsors' program for that period would increase compared with the current program, which is expected to bring in $866 million.

"For Top 7 (2009-2012) we already have nine sponsors and other partners are about to be announced or signed," Rogge said.

He expects about $1.0 billion in revenues for that program and for Top 8 (2013-2016) he sees an increase of another 10 percent to $1.1 billion.

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IOC Marketing Commission chief Gerhard Heiberg said despite the current global economic conditions sponsorship interest in the Games was great.

"London 2012 has been able to attract several sponsors," Heiberg said, naming BP (BP.L) as the latest addition and saying that Russia's Gazprom (GAZP.RTS) could join Russia's Sochi 2014 Winter Games as an energy sponsor.

"Gazprom cannot be a sponsor until after London 2012 (because of BP) and that fits fine with Sochi 2014," Heiberg said.

The IOC's current reserves were also healthy, Rogge said, jumping to $353 million, up from $105 million in 2001.

He warned, however, that the organization would need to attract young people who have turned to other sporting events, including such competitions as the X Games, or turned away from sport altogether.

"The IOC must communicate better with young people whose tastes are changing," he said.

The IOC, seeing the average age of Olympic Games television viewers increasing steadily, has launched the Youth Olympics, an event for 14-18 year-olds, to reverse the trend. The first edition will be held in Singapore in 2010.

Recent studies have also shown a decline in interest in the Beijing Games compared with the previous Olympics in Athens.

(Writing by Karolos Grohmann; Editing by Ed Osmond and Alex Richardson)