NBC Flooding Market With Ads Promoting Beijing Games Coverage

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ONLINE COVERAGE: On the SBD/SBJ microsite dedicated to the Olympic Games, SportsBusiness Journal's Fisher & Mickle write about how NBC will plan out its online coverage. NBC execs expect sports such as equestrian, cycling and wrestling, which generally receive minimal fanfare compared with high-profile events such as swimming, track and basketball, to perform very well in the online settings. For the most part, NBC will not provide live online simulcasts of what it televises, artificially lowering the Web numbers for those top sports that dominate the network TV schedule. But even when factoring that in, expectations remain high for several of the niche sports. “Some of the early returns we’ve seen already for equestrian content have been through the roof,” said NBC Sports & Olympics Senior VP/Digital Media Perkins Miller. “We expect soccer and tennis to do very well, and wrestling, I think, is really going to open some people’s eyes. Track cycling, too.” For more on this, see www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/beijinggames.

YOU'VE GOT MAIL: DMNEWS.com's Dianna Dilworth reported NBCU during the Games is "hoping e-mail alerts for its NBCOlympics.com site will help engage fans." NBC Sports & Olympics Dir of Digital Media Hayle Chun said that the campaign is "targeted at an international audience, including 'all Olympics fans.'" Fans can "opt for updates, including news and features at NBCOlympics.com, depending on their interests." Alert content includes medal results, breaking news and athlete updates, "schedule and event reminders, headlines for every Olympic sport, videos and slideshow galleries." NBCU is working with e-mail service provider Lyris to deploy the updates (DMNEWS.com, 8/4).

STORY TELLERS: In St. Louis, Dan Caesar reports NBC "plans to reduce the number of pre-packed profiles it has show in the past, when it tried to develop stories for viewers to follow for several days." NBC Sports & Olympics Exec VP & Exec Producer David Neal: "We cut back the total number of features, and we made the features (that will air) for the most part shorter. ... Storytelling is still important. The onus of storytelling now falls on our commentators" (ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH, 8/5).

WATER LOGGED? Australian swim coach Alan Thompson said that NBC "should not have been able to 'buy' an Olympic swim trial and move it to a better time for ratings." The finals for most swimming events will be held in the morning in Beijing in order to air live in primetime in the U.S. Thompson "had no problem with the program being switched just with the fact that a broadcaster had such influence." Thompson: "My problem with the schedule change was that money bought tradition in the sport. ... In this day and age I think that loyalty is very lacking in sport and I think that often money talks too loudly" (AAP, 8/5).

Lauer Gives Viewers Tour Of Tiananmen Square During This Morning's "Today" Show

WHY STOP NOW? NBCU TV Networks Distribution President Bridget Baker said that NBC already has a "'significant' number of cable and satellite distributors signed up to offer cable network and digital content" from the 2010 Vancouver and 2012 London Games. Baker would "not reveal specific MSOs with whom NBC has reached future Olympic deals, nor would she reveal specific deal points." MULTICHANNEL NEWS' R. Thomas Umstead notes Cox Communications and Charter Communications are the only MSOs that "have confirmed an agreement for future Olympics," but neither operator would provide specific details (MULTICHANNEL NEWS, 8/4 issue).

NEWS FLASH: CBC Sports Exec Dir Scott Moore said that the Beijing Games are different in "that it has a much higher news value than previous Games, and it is changing how they are covering the Games." For the first time, news anchors are part of the net's Olympics coverage, as Ian Hanomansing and Diana Swain join Peter Mansbridge, who "will be hosting the CBC's flagship news show The National from Beijing for the four nights" leading up to Friday's Opening Ceremony. Moore: "We've certainly looked at it a little differently than other Olympics because one way or another it is going to be one of the most historic news events of our generation" (CP, 8/4).

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