http://www.variety.com/article/VR1118052619
As NBCU plans to cover its first Olympics as a Comcast company, the network is aiming to use a number of platforms to wind up on the winner’s platform. It’s a gameplan that includes streaming video to augment broadcast and cable coverage, along with establishing an identity for the rebranded NBC Sports Network and integration of other Comcast cable outlets — all to ensure that its $4 billion investment in the Games through 2020 pays off.
Certainly, there won’t be a shortage of coverage at the London Games, which run July 27 through Aug. 12. NBCU provided 3,600 total hours of programming from Beijing in 2008, and the network plans to exceed that in London. Moreover, NBCU is saying publicly that it already has sold as much as $900 million in advertising — much of that to Olympic partners that need to buy media to activate their significant investments in the Games.
According to Larry Woodard, head of Graham Stanley Advertising, the network needs to book a bit more than $200 million to break even on what it paid for the rights.
But there’s more to these Games than merely turning a profit.
“The Olympics provides a tremendous opportunity to build awareness for the NBC fall lineup,” says John Miller, of NBC Sports Group. “We plan to take full advantage of that opportunity.”
By most measures, NBCU’s coverage of the 2008 Games won a gold medal for ratings. Over 16 nights, 211 million Americans watched at least some of the Beijing Games, beating the previous record of 209 million set during the Atlanta Games in 1996. And the 2010 Winter Games from Vancouver averaged 24.4 million viewers in primetime, up considerably from the 2006 event in Italy (20.2 million).