Mark Lazarus Says NBC Broke Even On Broadcasting London Games

NBC Sports Group Chair Mark Lazarus today at the Bloomberg Sports Business Summit in N.Y. said that the net “broke even on its broadcast” of the London Games. Olympic ad sales rose to about $1.25B, “exceeding NBC’s forecast and rising” almost 50% from the Beijing Games in '08. NBC paid about $1.18B for U.S. TV rights to the London Games. Lazarus: “We were fortunate many U.S. teams and athletes performed very well, and that was good for our ratings” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 9/6).

Meanwhile, NBA Commissioner David Stern at the summit said the Nets “may jump into the league’s five highest revenue teams in the franchise’s first season in the Barclays Center.” Stern: “The Nets have these wonderful tent-pole sponsorships, they’re doing spectacularly in their season-ticket sales and they have retained a team that, in reading about it, looks like they’re going to compete” (BLOOMBERG NEWS, 9/6).