NBCUniversal says it has sold more than $1 billion in
national television and digital advertising on the Olympic Games, which begin
Friday in London.
The total is $150 million more than NBCU racked up for its
coverage of the 2008 Olympics. But, as NBCU officials recently confirmed, that
despite the added advertising green sales theydon't expect gold in the form of a profit from the London Games.
TV ad sales are about $950 million, up $100 million from
2008, when the Summer Games were held in Beijing, NBCU said. The TV total
includes NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, two specialty
channels and a 3D channel.
Digital sales are more than $60 million, more than three
times the total for Beijing Games. NBC will be live-streaming every
competition, accounting for 3,500 hours in 32 sports, on NBCOlympics.com and
the NBC Olympics Live Extra app for mobile devices and tablets. In 2008,
NBCOlympics.com featured 2,200 hours in 25 sports.
"This is a tremendous accomplishment that is a credit to the
hard work of our entire Olympic team and speaks to the long-term benefits of
our Olympic investment," Mark Lazarus, chairman, NBC Sports Group, said in a
statement. "The proliferation of our digital, mobile and tablet Olympic
content, including the decision to live stream all sporting events, played a
vital role in reaching this extraordinary milestone."
Seth Winter, executive VP, sales and sales marketing, NBC
Sports Group, added that the total "demonstrates the power of the Olympics. No
other property has such as diverse group of sponsors, who can target the
broadest range of demographic and psychographic audiences. We are not done yet
and will continue to sell during the Games."
