Extraordinary demand from auto manufacturers and the addition of golf to the Olympic program has NBCUniversal confident it will eclipse $1B in ad sales during the ’16 Rio Games, NBC Sports Group Exec VP/Sales & Sales Marketing Seth Winter said. “We have more capacity in the Olympics this go-around because golf will have a very, very significant presence on our networks,” Winter said. "Golf Channel will be televising golf, so we have a lot more sports to bring to the marketplace. But, with that said, expectations are to exceed London, and we're pretty much pacing right along with our London sellouts." NBC cleared $1B during the '12 London Games and reported $850M in ad sales for the '08 Beijing Games. Olympics rights holders such as BMW, United, Procter & Gamble, Kellogg’s, Nike and Coca-Cola all bought significant time during the initial sales phase that focuses on existing sponsors, Winter said. He expects demand from the rest of the market to be robust between now and the Games. Aside from automotive, strong categories include packaged good, insurance, motion pictures and fast-food restaurants, he said. NBC would not release a price for advertising, nor did Winter offer a percentage of inventory sold so far. Rio is only one hour ahead of Eastern Time, allowing NBC to air the Games entirely live. That will translate into strong streaming viewership during the day, Winter said, followed by traditional linear viewing in primetime. He said digital ad sales inventory will be up 75% over '12, but the network still does not have enough digital availability for ad buyers. "We'll deliver an NFL-like number every evening, exceeding 20 million viewers (on television), and we just don't have that kind of viewership on desktops or mobile devices, or at least we don't anticipate that,” Winter said. "Our audiences are greater on our linear channels than they are on our digital channels" (Ben Fischer, Staff Writer).
SOME ASKING PRICES HIT SEVEN FIGURES: The WALL STREET JOURNAL's Steven Perlberg cites one ad buyer as saying that NBCUniversal "is asking for more than a million dollars for primetime TV spots and is petitioning advertisers to spend $15 million before they can have access to digital inventory." Perlberg notes that it is "still very early" in the sales process, and ad prices "are always negotiable" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 8/5). In Philadelphia, Bob Fernandez notes there are "no fixed prices for Olympic ads, as there are for Super Bowl ads." NBC Sports officials indicated that the cost of Olympic ads "can vary by when a company purchases the ads, how consistently it has advertised during the Olympics in the past, and other factors." Winter said that some companies "wanted more flexibility and were waiting longer to place ads." Meanwhile, Winter said that he did not believe the "media coverage of Brazil's poverty or environmental problems would deter companies" from advertising during the Rio Games (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 8/5).
