NBCUniversal chief executive Steve Burke said he expects the US media group to break even on its coverage of the 2012 Olympic Games despite earlier expectations of making a loss.
NBCU chief executive Steve Burke said the company’s coverage of London 2012 is expected to break even from a cash perspective, meaning the cost of the broadcast rights and production will be balanced by advertising sales.
Burke said NBCU is “way ahead of where we thought we’d be,” hailing ratings for the first five days of the Games which have been nine-per-cent higher than at the same stage of the 2008 Beijing Games. NBC had predicted a 20-per-cent ratings fall from the previous edition of the summer Games.
“We think that is because of the way we promoted the Olympics during the hundred days leading up to the Olympics,” Burke said, according to the Associated Press.
NBCU paid $1.2 billion (€984 million) for the US broadcast rights to the London Games, but time difference issues combined with other factors such as higher production costs had at one stage led the broadcaster to expect a $200 million loss from the Games.
However, shortly before the Games opened NBCU said it had created a new Olympics record by selling $1 billion of national television and digital advertising for London 2012.