NBC Claims $1B in Olympic Ad Sales

Digital ads contribute $60M to total

By Jon Lafayette -- Broadcasting & Cable, 7/25/2012 1:00:00 PM

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 they don'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."