In order for NBC to align the 2022 Super Bowl with the Beijing Winter Olympics, the network has agreed a deal to switch its next telecast of the NFL showpiece game with CBS.
It means CBS will broadcast Super Bowl LV from Tampa in 2021 and NBC will air Super Bowl LVI [in Los Angeles] in 2022.
The move allows NBC to once again broadcast the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics in the same month – as it successfully did in 2018, raking in $1.4bn (€1.17bn) in ad revenue in just 22 days.
“You can create a spot that runs in the Super Bowl and you can amortize your costs of creating it by running it in the Olympics,” Dan Lovinger, executive vice-president, ad sales, at NBC Sports Group, told Variety in 2017.
In turn, it enables CBS to avoid having a Super Bowl that would have competed for advertising dollars with an Olympics: the 2022 Super Bowl takes place just two days after the Winter Olympics opens on February 4.
There is no compensation because it benefits both networks, sources told the New York Post.
NBC, CBS and Fox typically rotate the annual Super Bowl broadcast as part of their rights deals with the NFL.
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