Each day during the Olympics, THE DAILY offers our take on the business performances of some of the people, sponsors, broadcasters and other entities around Rio.
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GOLD: NBC -- The torch has not even been lit yet and the Peacock is off to a great start. NBC Sports Group set an Olympic record by booking $1.2B in national sales for Rio, and it showed non-stop Olympic soccer action in the days leading up to the Opening Ceremony as part of its planned 6,755 hours of programming across 11 channels. We look forward to seeing every competition live during the Games, as well as the network’s primetime spectaculars.
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SILVER: USOC -- It was a stroke of genius to bring its own fix-it guys to Rio not only to insure that the American quarters in the Olympic Village would be finished and problems alleviated, but in the process avoid ugly quotes and stories from its contingent about the village in the days leading up to the Games.
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BRONZE: WADA -- At least somebody tried to do the right thing with the state-run Russian drug program. We realize the timing of the initial WADA report was not perfect, but it certainly left a lot more time for action than the IOC’s decision to push off any decisions to the individual governing bodies just weeks ago.
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TIN: IOC -- Where do we start? First off for buying all the aspects of Rio’s pitch to secure the Games seven years ago -- how’s that promised water cleanup coming, by the way? Then for not staying on top of the local organizing committee to make sure all aspects of the bid were coming along nicely. And finally for not backing WADA on the Russian PED case. There are so many other reasons at this point, but these three gravitate to the top. The IOC under Thomas Bach is looking surprisingly out of touch and tone deaf. Let’s just hope the Games come off much better than the buildup to get to them.
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