The IOC is now a financially robust organisation, having reinforced its position as a key player in the lucrative world of sport. For the 2005-2008 period alone the IOC will receive about $2.5 billion from broadcasters, $866 million from its TOP sponsors' programme, a worldwide sponsorship programme managed by the IOC, plus money from tickets and licensed programmes.

An additional $1.0 billion will flow into the coffers of the Chinese organisers from their own local marketing contracts. The IOC will pay out just over one billion dollars for half of the Beijing Games' organisational budget, as it does with every host city.

Income from broadcasting and new media rights for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Games and London 2012 Olympics has already risen nearly 40 percent from the previous two-Games package of Beijing and Turin, and will be in excess of $3.0 billion. The IOC estimates this figure to reach about $3.3 billion. It has said some 15 percent of that will come from new media including the internet and mobile phones.

Total Olympic revenues for the most recent completed four-year period (2001-2004) exceeded $4 billion with 53 percent coming from broadcasters, 34 percent from sponsors, 11 from ticketing and 2 percent from licensing. Some 92 percent of that amount was distributed to the IOC partners -- National Olympic Committees, international sports federations and Games organising committees -- while 8 percent [£320m + ] stayed with the IOC for operational and administrative costs.

Compared with the soccer World Cup, the Olympic Games are bigger in terms of finances. For 2003-2006 FIFA posted revenues of just over $3 billion with 92 percent of revenues being event-related, mainly from the 2006 World Cup in Germany. Net four-year results stood at $774 million.
Television broadcasting rights for the 2006 World Cup were $1.6 billion and marketing rights income was $714 million, compared to the IOC's $2.5 billion and $1.866 billion including Beijing's local marketing deals.

From: IOC eyes healthy profits from Beijing Games, International Herald Tribune, May 9, 2008, Karolos Grohmann, Reuters

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In which it says: "The IOC does not accept commercial associations with tobacco products, alcoholic beverages (other than beer and wine), or other products that may conflict with or be considered inappropriate to the mission of the IOC or to the spirit of Olympism."

So Olympic ideals include drinking beer which forces you to become obese in order to get properly drunk.