NBC And The Olympics In The Hour Of The Wolf

Online proliferation and the monetization of the Beijing Olympics are a top priority for NBC, which owns the US television rights to the international sporting event. It is indeed ironic that once again at a great crossroads in Jeff Zucker's professional life matters hinge upon how well he executes the Olympics. All eyes will be watching. Mr. Zucker, you'll remember, began his career at NBC as a researcher for the 1988 Olympics. The pendulum swings. Zucker, now NBC Universal's CEO, may or may not be safe in his present corporate situation. If you believe the Financial Times story that said that ''People close to the situation say that Jeffrey Immelt, GE's chairman and chief executive, will not consider the future of GE's 80 per cent stake in NBC -- which had sales of $16.2bn and profits of $2.9 bn last year -- before the Olympics.'' In response, last month Zucker told The New Yorker's Ken Auletta at Syracuse University's Newhouse School of Public Communications (via Forbes): ''Regarding a story that said GE was considering selling NBC/Universal after the Olympics this summer, Zucker said it wouldn't make sense. He said the 18 months that follow the games would probably be better from a revenue standpoint than the next 10 months because of the presidential election, NBC's first Super Bowl in more than a decade and, 12 months later, another Olympics.'' And then, what? Wouldn't right after the Olympics and the Super Bowl and the Presidential election -- flush with ad dollars -- be the perfect time to sell? I'm just speculating. Holly M. Sanders of The NY Post outlines the NBC Olympic online strategy: ''NBC Universal is going for advertising gold with wall-to-wall coverage of the Beijing Olympics on the Web. ''The Peacock is making a major Internet ad push for next year's Summer Games in a bid to tap the growing market for online video. ''The network will offer an unprecedented 3,600 hours of Olympics events at its site, NBCOlympics.com, including 2,200 hours of live footage. Even Rupert Murdoch, who is newly skeptical about profitability-as-always expectations from televsion, remains bullish on the prospects of major sporting events, like the Super Bowl. And how much greater an event is the Olympics than the Super Bowl? NBC Universal has less than a year to execute as well -- or better, and on a far larger scale -- than CBS's groundbreaking 2006 NCAA men's basketball March Madness spectacle. (image via lostremote)

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NBC And The Olympics In The Hour Of The Wolf

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