Tehran – The Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union (ABU) has called on the International Olympic Council (IOC) to prioritize free-to-air broadcasters when distributing Olympic Games’ broadcast rights and to sell the rights directly to the free-to-air broadcasters. These were among the main concerns highlighted by the “Tehran Declaration on Media Coverage of the Olympic Games” adopted by the 44th ABU General Assembly in Iran on November 3. The General Assembly also appealed to Asia-Pacific governments to enact laws to keep the Olympic Games on free-to-air TV. The ABU, which negotiates broadcast rights fees on behalf of its members via a sports pool, has been pressured to “unbundle” broadcast rights to sporting events as governing bodies of various sports had wanted to sell them separately to operators of different media platforms. The General Asssembly also elected Manuel Goncalves of Teledifusao de Macau (TDM) and Dr Hasan Khojasteh of Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting