CEO: NBC set to 'break even' on Olympics
NEW YORK (AP) - NBC is set to "break even" on its Olympics coverage, rather than lose money as previously expected, the head of NBCUniversal said Wednesday.
The company had expected at one point to take a $200 million loss on the London Olympics. NBC paid $1.2 billion for the rights to show the games on TV and online in the U.S. It has said that it sold more than $1 billion in ads, breaking the record of $850 million set during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
"We are way ahead of where we thought we'd be," NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said Wednesday.
Burke said that because of the timing of events in London, he had expected ratings to be down 20 percent compared with the Beijing Olympics. But they are up 9 percent so far, five days into the event.
"We think that is because of the way we promoted the Olympics during the hundred days leading up to the Olympics," Burke said.
Tuesday's Olympics telecast, featuring Michael Phelps' record-setting swim and the gold medal performance of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, had the highest rating of any night so far, according to Nielsen's overnight measurement of the nation's largest cities. An exact viewership estimate is expected later Wednesday.
The Olympics run through Aug. 12. The time difference with Europe doesn't allow for live events in primetime. In Beijing four years ago, NBC was able to show morning events live in the evening.
Burke made the comments on a conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss the second-quarter earnings report of Comcast Corp., NBCUniversal's parent company.
Burke said he was speaking on a "cash on cash" basis, which doesn't directly translate into a profit for the company.
From a formal accounting perspective, the treatment of the Olympics is more complicated, as NBC made the deal with the International Olympic Committee before the Comcast bought the controlling stake in NBCUniversal early last year. Some of the loss was eliminated through purchase accounting. Comcast Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis said on the call that the end result would be that the company will post a small gain from the event in the current quarter.
Last year, NBC outbid Fox and ESPN to gain the rights for four more Olympics, paying $4.38 billion through 2020.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
8/1/2012 7:41:00 AM (GMT -7:00)
The company had expected at one point to take a $200 million loss on the London Olympics. NBC paid $1.2 billion for the rights to show the games on TV and online in the U.S. It has said that it sold more than $1 billion in ads, breaking the record of $850 million set during the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
"We are way ahead of where we thought we'd be," NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said Wednesday.
Burke said that because of the timing of events in London, he had expected ratings to be down 20 percent compared with the Beijing Olympics. But they are up 9 percent so far, five days into the event.
"We think that is because of the way we promoted the Olympics during the hundred days leading up to the Olympics," Burke said.
Tuesday's Olympics telecast, featuring Michael Phelps' record-setting swim and the gold medal performance of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, had the highest rating of any night so far, according to Nielsen's overnight measurement of the nation's largest cities. An exact viewership estimate is expected later Wednesday.
The Olympics run through Aug. 12. The time difference with Europe doesn't allow for live events in primetime. In Beijing four years ago, NBC was able to show morning events live in the evening.
Burke made the comments on a conference call with Wall Street analysts to discuss the second-quarter earnings report of Comcast Corp., NBCUniversal's parent company.
Burke said he was speaking on a "cash on cash" basis, which doesn't directly translate into a profit for the company.
From a formal accounting perspective, the treatment of the Olympics is more complicated, as NBC made the deal with the International Olympic Committee before the Comcast bought the controlling stake in NBCUniversal early last year. Some of the loss was eliminated through purchase accounting. Comcast Chief Financial Officer Michael Angelakis said on the call that the end result would be that the company will post a small gain from the event in the current quarter.
Last year, NBC outbid Fox and ESPN to gain the rights for four more Olympics, paying $4.38 billion through 2020.
(Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
8/1/2012 7:41:00 AM (GMT -7:00)
If they had better commentators and better coverage they might be able to make money. Â It sounds like ABC/ESPN or FOX should really go for it next time (or a combination of networks) so we can finally get coverage that is even close to what the CBC did and CTV does, and stream everything over the Internet.
I'm recording it with Media Center via a OTA DTV tuner card, and found an app (ShowAnalyzer) that automatically strips the ads out. during playback, no ads (well much fewer ads, does not catch them all). Thus, I'm not paying anyone for it, not even with my advertising viewership. Plus, forward skip gets through the uninteresting events.
I am not watching them myself and IMO i have better things to do than be bombarded by advertising. Are the Olympicsgoing to solve any real problems (no), Are they a true measure of world nations competing in fair play, or role models to young people? (if the bat-mitten cheating issue is any hint....NO), are they in any way important to the real world (no..) are the the funny video's stemming from people recording them amusing example...  (yes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ltcCGd9zid8Â - but necessary .... NO)Â
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Sheesh can we focus our efforts on real problems please the world has no shortage of them!....
Too bad their execs weren't more creative thinkers. They should have learned a lesson from the NCAA March Madness app. People are more than willing to spend money on an app to get live streaming and pay that money directly to the content providers rather than some cable company.