The 2016 Rio Olympics are expected to bring in huge advertising dollars for NBC, thanks to “extraordinary” demand from auto manufacturers and the addition of golf to the summer games, according to Sports Business Journal’s Ben Fischer. NBCUniversal is projecting to surpass $1 billion in ad sales during the Rio Games.
“We have more capacity in the Olympics this go-around because golf will have a very, very significant presence on our networks,” said Seth Winter, executive vice president of sales and sales marketing for NBC Sports Group. “Expectations are to exceed London, and we’re pretty much pacing right along with our London sellouts.”
NBC broke the $1 billion mark in ad sales for the 2012 London Olympics, so if the sales and marketing department already sees the network’s ad buys keeping or exceeding pace from the previous Summer Games, there’s obviously reason for optimism. The 2008 Beijing Games reportedly yielded $850 million in ad sales for NBC, which has held the broadcast rights to the Summer Olympics since 1980. (The network has had the Winter Games since 2002.)
The decision to vote golf back into the Olympics back in 2009 is turning out to be a lucrative one, though there has been some controversy over the sport’s format during the Summer Games. Rather than match play, which would seem more conducive to an Olympics-style event pitting countries (and teams) against one another, the tournament will be 72-hole stroke play as seen in the major golf tournaments. The idea is to prevent nations that have fully developed golf from dominating the competition.
Accordingly, the PGA has adjusted its 2016 schedule to accommodate the Rio Games (with golf expected to be played from Aug. 11 to 14), moving the PGA Championship to late July. The FedEx Cup playoffs and the Ryder Cup will subsequently follow the Olympics.
Among the advertisers making significant buys early on for the 2016 Summer Games are BMW, Nike, Coca-Cola, United, Procter & Gamble and Kellogg’s, all of whom are existing Olympics sponsors.
Comments are closed.
About Ian Casselberry
Ian is a writer, editor, and podcaster. You can find his work at Awful Announcing and The Comeback. He's written for Sports Illustrated, Yahoo Sports, MLive, Bleacher Report, and SB Nation.