1 / Ad Buyers Lose London
Leverage: Buyers on Madison Avenue
looking to score some low-price deals for
their clients via an NBCU swan song with
the 2012 Summer Games have to think
again. Naysayers predict NBCU will take a
$250 million bath crossing the pond next
summer.
2 / Versus Becomes a Real Player:
The cable sports network will gain
greatly from the games. Coupled with its
expanded $2 billion NHL rights contract
with NBC, NBCU is looking to further
lift the profile and license fee for this
growing asset.
3 / Universal Sports May See
Action: NBCU runs this multicast
joint venture, which provides yearround
coverage for Olympic sports,
in partnership with Leo Hindery’s
InterMedia Partners. Having served
as news-supplement flanker during
Vancouver, will Universal become part of
NBCU’s actual Games coverage?
4 / Whither Olympics Network?
See above. The USOC’s attempt to
launch a service a couple of years back
with Comcast as a key supporter and
distributor crashed in front of complaints
from the IOC and NBC. The IOC said the
network could still fly, but … Universal
Sports could be the answer.
5 / Kardashians Keep Up: Kim, her
sisters and any other stars from NBCU’s
stable of networks, which has grown
to 20 following the merger will likely
help tout the games, with help from 40
attendant websites. When it comes to
NBCU’s games promotion, it’s a case of
Citius, Altius, Fortius. (swifter, higher,
stronger).
6 / More Guides for the Games:
NBC Sports Group chairman Mark
Lazarus said that the company has
rights to all platforms known and yet to
be conceived, so aficionados are going
to need help in deciding what they want
to watch on what platform.
7 / Olympics in 3D: Prepare to see
sweat beading on athletes’ brows. While
NBCU hasn’t declared coverage plans,
expect 3D coverage at some point soon.
The technology is here and so is the
demand for super-sharp sports action.
8 / Olympic-Sized Ratings Boost:
With the NBC network in fourth-place,
the Olympics might give the network the
boost it needs. If however, NBCU CEO
Steve Burke elevates NBCU’s lineup to a
stronger position with the right shows,
the Olympics might actually interrupt
the Peacock’s primetime momentum.
9 / Pyeongchang Positioning: It
certainly be easier to travel to the 2018
Winter Games if the quadrennial winds
up in Munich (site of the 1972 Summer
Games) or Annency, France, but the South
Korean candidate city might be better for
TV audiences in the U.S., with live morning
events there in East Coast primetime. The
IOC will vote on the 2018 Games venue on
July 6 in South Africa.
10 / When in Rome: Right now, the
Eternal City is the only candidate for the
2020 Games. IOC president Jacques
Rogge said the group would certainly “be
very happy if there were a bid from the U.S.
for 2020.” And why not: That sets the stage
for rights bidding for the next decade.
Just don’t mention it to folks in New York
(2012) and Chicago (2016).
