Olympic officials say it's the right time for a $600 million gamble.
Concerned about an aging television audience for the games, the authorities are working on a channel aimed at young people. The proposal was first made in 1994 by Thomas Bach, who took over the presidency of the IOC in September 2013.
IOC executives in December agreed to spend $600 million over seven years on the year-round channel, and its executives will get a progress report at a three-day meeting in Rio de Janeiro that starts Thursday. The organization has reserves of about $980 million.
"We need to take some risks and it's better to take risks now because we're stronger than we've ever been," Yiannis Exarchos, who is overseeing the project, said in an interview.