NBCUniversal was expecting to lose upwards of $100 million during its coverage of the 2012 London Olympics. NBC paid the International Olympic Committee $1.2 billion for exclusive TV rights, and while it expected to do well, it was not expecting to recoup all of the money it spent.
This morning however, during Comcast’s quarterly earnings call, the company revealed that thanks to stronger than anticipated ratings, NBC may break even on the games.
The Los Angeles Times has details:
“We are off to a very, very successful start,” NBCUniversal Chief Executive Steve Burke said Wednesday morning during Comcast’s second-quarter earnings call. “We think London is going to be right around break-even. We are way ahead of where we thought we would be.”
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“Even before the Olympics started this year, we were over $100 million ahead of our ad sales goal,” Burke told analysts on the call. “So there was a lot of demand I think for the time and we booked over $100 million more than our plan and more than we ever had booked before. Now that the Olympics have started, the second positive … is in ratings, which are way up versus forecast.”