THE Olympics are heading back to Kerry Stokes’ Seven Network after their recent flings with Nine and Ten.

The Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020 are set to be broadcast on Seven, along with the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The broadcaster has signed the deal with the IOC and an announcement is expected within days, sources said.

The IOC was hoping to snare as much as $250 million, but is believed to have settled for less than $200 million after both Nine and Ten pulled out of negotiations.

The deal will mean a return to the Olympics for veteran broadcaster Bruce McAvaney, who famously called Cathy Freeman’s nation-stopping run for gold at the 2000 Sydney Games.

Stokes, a sports nut who was spotted in the royal box at Wimbledon with David and Victoria Beckham and actor Samuel L. Jackson, took a personal interest in negotiations.

“Seven see the Olympics as part of their heritage and there’s plenty of excitement about the Games coming back,’’ one source said.

The last Olympics Seven broadcast were the Beijing Games of 2008, before it lost the rights to Nine and pay-TV operator Foxtel, which jointly paid $122 million for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic and the 2012 London Games.

Ten covered this year’s Winter Games in Sochi, where IOC vice-president John Coates helped kick off the new round of negotiations.

The Australian deal follows a blockbuster $US7.75 billion deal announced in May with NBCUniversal for US broadcast rights until 2032.