Canada Olympic Broadcast Consortium On Track To Meet Targets

Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium (COBMC) is at least C$20M "short of breaking even, but is on track to meet its targets," according to Susan Krashinsky of the GLOBE & MAIL. A source said that the COBMC paid $90M for the Canadian broadcast rights to the Vancouver Olympics and its total costs are about C$200M, but sources said that the COBMC so far has "pulled in advertising revenues of between" C$170-180M. COBMC President Keith Pelley acknowledged that there is "some advertising space for the Games that has not yet sold." Pelley: "We still will have some inventory during the Games that, with the anticipation of being the highest-rated Games, will pull in a full premium." Still, officials said that Olympic ad spending "has picked up." Pelley: "There's a groundswell of interest that gives us a tremendous amount of confidence. Some of the hottest events are practically sold out. We're getting close." Pelley said that there are "140 advertising deals in place for the Canadian broadcasters and more are being negotiated," and that those deals range from C$10,000 to more than C$15M. Krashinsky notes broadcast rights "have shot up for these Games on both sides of the border," as the COBMC paid "more than three times what CBC paid" for the '06 Turin Games. Meanwhile, though NBC Sports & Olympics Chair Dick Ebersol Sunday admitted that the network "expects to lose money" on the Vancouver Games, Pelley said that Canada is "in a different position." Pelley: "It's completely different when the Games are in your own country" (GLOBE & MAIL, 1/12). One ad exec said of the COBMC, "I don't believe they can break even, but I think they're a lot closer than a lot of people expected." But another ad exec estimated that the COBMC could lose $30M "simply because it paid [US$90M] for the Games," US$50M more than the CBC offered (TORONTO STAR, 1/12).

GETTING OUT IN FRONT: Ponturo Management Group CEO Tony Ponturo said NBC "obviously decided to get out in front of the story" by stating they would lose money on the Vancouver Games. Ponturo: "They're not going to make up that rights fee increase and they're going to lose money." He added there is "just so much that the advertising community can put into a two-week period of time, and the rights fees have gotten too high and it can't sustain that kind of value" (Bloomberg TV, 1/11). Meanwhile, YAHOO SPORTS' Chris Chase wrote NBC's expected loss "might make it more necessary for NBC to get back the Olympics" when bidding opens later this year for rights to the '14 and '16 Games. Chase: "Profits and losses aren't made in a vacuum. The money is fungible. The benefit to NBC isn't just in the $31[M] it turned in Beijing, it was in getting 35 million people per night to seek out NBC for 16 nights and to see the ads for The Tonight Show and The Office and whatever else they were promoting" (SPORTS.YAHOO.com, 1/11).

CORRECTION: Yesterday's issue of THE DAILY incorrectly stated the rights fees NBC paid for the Vancouver, '06 Turin and '02 Salt Lake City Games. THE DAILY regrets the error.