NBC Feeling The Fail When Trying To Sell Olympics Advertising
Wednesday, June 04, 2008
An unbelievable amount of NBC's Olympic advertising spots are still available if you've got an extra $750K laying around. According to the NY Post the network needs to sell $1 Billion worth of spots to break even ($900 Million to Broadcast, $100 Million on coverage) and they're anywhere from $150-$350 Million short....
With just two months until the Beijing Olympics, NBC is scrambling to sell out ad time for its broadcast of the Games.NBC is saying that they're on track, but I don't know if I believe them. The network's put an insane amount of money into a program that most Americans believe is just there. Not something you go out of your way to view. It'll be very interesting to see the Olympics ratings this Summer and if people still care.
The Peacock network is said to be aggressively pushing advertisers and their agencies to buy spots during the Olympics as part of the "upfront" sales negotiations that started in mid-May.
Most of the big spenders have already bought during the Games, which means NBC will have to chase smaller advertisers to close the gap. NBC is charging north of $750,00 for a single spot. Ad execs said the pro-Tibet protests against China are weighing on the Olympics, despite NBC's assertions to the contrary.
A second culprit is the slowing economy. Ad buyers noted the red-hot "scatter" market - in which advertisers buy whatever ad time is left over after the upfront season ends - has cooled in recent months.
NBC Suffering Its Own Olympic Trials (NY Post)
7 Comments:
I don't think its as much an issue of whether the Olympics itself is still relevant or interesting, but rather how NBC has mismanaged their coverage.
They sit on their thumbs for 3.5 years (ignoring opportunities to promote Olympic sports) and then jump in for a few months and act like everyone's supposed to know and love Jeremy Wariner and Tyson Gay.
Mez, the US has won the overall medal count each Olympics since the 84 LA Games. Hopefully we can keep that streak intact in Beijing.
As this draws closer, AA, NBC will likely lower and lower the prices for the ads to claim they are sold out. As with Turin, if this Olympics underperforms, they'll have a stationwagon full of make-goods all season long.
Besides our men destroying the competition in hoops this summer, I couldn't give less of a fuck about this garbagefest.
Just like ESPN over-promotes several things (7 hours on horse racing), NBC under-promotes things. I'm just waiting for the 2012 Olympics as I know someone who could very well be in them. Despite that though, I still enjoy the winter olympics much more than I enjoy the summer games.
Jenny Craig and Nutra system should advertise since it's only fat frows that watch these games anymore.
The Olympics are really a microcosm of the American way though.
When we are doing good and kicking ass, it's "Hey everyone! Come and see how good we look!"
And when we aren't doing too well or suck, it's, "Hey where did you get those sports, the toilet store?"
NBC should at least break even, someone will relent and take the shot at buying some extra publicity.