NBC Sports Ad Sales Chief Dan Lovinger Shifts to Olympics-Centric Role

NBC Sports ad sales chief Dan Lovinger has devoted much of his attention over the past two years to selling advertising for NBCUniversal’s Olympic Games in Tokyo and Beijing—and he’ll now be focusing full-time on that part of the job. Lovinger has been promoted to president, NBC advertising sales and partnerships, and will step into a new role focused solely on monetizing all of NBCUniversal’s Olympic and Paralympic interests. He’ll report directly to Linda Yaccarino, chairman, global advertising and partnerships, NBCUniversal. This new position “is essential for our future,” Yaccarino wrote in a staff memo. Going forward, Lovinger will head up ad sales for all of NBCU’s Olympics Games through 2032, as well as managing NBCU’s partnership with the United States Olympic and Paralympic Properties group, which includes sponsorship sales for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles. NBCU Still Has ‘a Few’ Super Bowl 56 Ad Units Left, Winter Games Sales On Par With 2018 Especially over the next decade, the company’s partnerships with the United States Olympic and Paralympic properties “are key to our success and need dedicated focus,” Yaccarino wrote in the memo. “That’s why, to capitalize on this enormous opportunity and priority for our company, we’ve decided to create a dedicated leadership role focused on merging our sponsorship and media opportunities to create a truly One Platform experience for our Olympic and Paralympic partners.” Meanwhile, the rest of NBC Sports portfolio sales outside the Olympics—including NFL football and the upcoming Super Bowl 56, which will air on NBC— will report into Mark Marshall, president, advertising and client partnerships, NBCUniversal. Two weeks ago, Lovinger participated in NBCUniversal’s pre-recorded Super Bowl and Winter Olympics press briefing, and said the game was “virtually sold out,” but the company had held onto “a few units” until the final matchup was announced for the Feb. 13 game. As for sales for the Winter Olympics, which will be held Feb. 2-20, “we’re at exactly the same spot we were heading into [2018’s] Games in Pyeongchang in terms of our sellouts,” Lovinger said at the time. “We still have some work to be done between now and the end of the Games, but we feel really confident that we’re going to achieve all of our goals.” So far, nearly 100 advertisers are lined up for the Winter Olympics, which Lovinger said is on par with where NBC Sports was at this point four years ago. That includes 40 new advertisers. The average spend level per advertiser is up slightly from 2018. Lovinger has been at NBCUniversal for 11 years. In 2016, he was tapped to head up NBC Sports ad sales as evp, advertising sales and partnerships, NBC Sports Group.; prior to that, he had been evp for NBCUniversal's entertainment ad sales group.