The Sydney Morning Herald had reported that Nine offered more than AUD$300 million (£170 million/$205 million/€193 million) for the next three Summer Games, including Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028, and the Winter events at Milan Cortina 2026 and 2030, which still has to be awarded.

They outbid rival Seven, which sources claimed was between AUD$230 (£130 million/$157 million/€148 million) and AUD$250 million (£142 million/$171 million/€161 million) and had refused to increase the offer they had made last August.

Both bidders were below the figure of AUD$400 million (£227 million/$274 million/€258 million) that the International Olympic Committee (IOC), who travelled to Australia in November to negotiate a deal, were hoping for.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, Seven wrote down the value of the Olympics in 2017 by AUD$70 million (£40 million/$48 million/€45 million) with original deal reported to be worth AUD$200 million (£113 million/$137 million/€129 million).

There were record viewing figures for the re-arranged 2020 Olympics in Tokyo in 2021, but Seven still lost AUD$50 million (£28 million/32 million/$34 million/€)on the deal after spending AUD$150 million (£85 million/$103 million/€97 million) on production costs.

Seven told staff before Christmas that it had pulled out of the race because the economics of a deal did not stack up.

Seven West Media chief executive James Warburton has now confirmed that Seven withdrew from the process.

"A massive end to the year with media rights negotiations on the cricket and the Olympics," he said in a statement.

"The news is that we have made the decision to not retain the Olympics rights for 2024 to 2032.

"The hard part - we love sport and particularly the Olympics - so this does feel like a kick in the guts.

"Whilst you would think this is negative news, the reality is that the Olympics has been uneconomic and led to substantial losses and put massive pressure on our balance sheet over a long period of time.

"But the truth is we have been forging a new path and these decisions of ‘economics over ego’ will completely liberate the business to go to our next phase of growth.

"Cricket discussions are ongoing, and I will provide an update as soon as they are finalised."

While the Games are loss-making for broadcasters, they are huge promotional platforms and the attraction of signing a deal to broadcast the third Olympics to be staged in Australia at Brisbane in 2032 was a strong one.

Seven and Nine were joint broadcasters of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne, the first to be televised in Australia.

Since then, Seven has been the main Olympics broadcaster in Australia.

Nine last held the Olympic rights in Australia from Vancouver 2010 to Sochi 2014, which included London 2012, in a joint deal with Network Ten and Foxtel.

Both Nine and the IOC declined to comment.