NBC Surpasses $1 Billion in Ad Sales for Tokyo Olympics
“There’s less and less big places where people gather, but sports is one of those places,” Mark Marshall, of NBCUniversal, says
NBC is well on its way to its goal of topping the $1.2 billion in advertising revenue from the 2016 Rio Olympics, announcing Tuesday that it has already crossed the $1 billion mark for next summer’s Games from Tokyo.
Executive vice president Dan Lovinger said Tuesday on a conference call with media that NBC is pacing well ahead of where they were four years, citing “double-digit” growth. The Olympics are eight months away, or 227 days to be exact. The Opening Ceremony for the Games of the XXXII Olympiad will take place on July 24, 2020.
Lovinger said Olympics ad packages are going for anywhere between $1 million and $100 million, though the majority veer closer towards the former.
“There’s less and less big places where people gather, but sports is one of those places where people absolutely do gather,” said Mark Marshall, co-president of NBCUniversal advertising sales and partnerships. “Sports continues to bring large audiences together.”
NBC said in July that it expected to “exceed” the 2016 amount, which was a record for NBC. Lovinger added Tuesday that more than half of the companies that have committed are new advertisers for a Summer Olympics. Lovinger said they have “not engaged” with any presidential candidates about buying ad time during the two week-long event.
NBC Sports is selling these games on the Total Audience Delivery (TAD) metric, which combines broadcast, cable, digital and social.
NBC’s Olympics coverage next summer will be led by Golf Channel executive producer Molly Solomon, who takes over from Jim Bell. Solomon, who has worked 10 prior Olympics for NBC Sports, including as coordinating producer of the 2012 London Olympics Opening Ceremony and primetime show, will oversee all day-to-day editorial production of NBC Olympics’ coverage of the Games, as well as Olympic Channel.
Bell stepped down last month after three decades with NBC. He was with NBC since 1990 as a producer and has worked on every Olympics for the network since the 1992 Summer Games.