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| TMC... |
 Posted: Mon Oct 05, 2009 12:58 pm |
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http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=114798
by Wayne Friedman, 7 hours ago
Two years from now, Comcast could get the benefit of the Summer
Olympic games -- should it complete its joint venture with General
Electric for NBC Universal.
That'll come with the London games. What hasn't been decided is
whether Comcast will get the advantage of the Olympic events in 2014
(Winter Games in Sochi, Russia) and 2016, which was given to Rio de
Janeiro on Friday.
For NBC Sports may not continue its long-time legacy in airing the
events, since the likes of Walt Disney's ESPN will probably make a big
play for the games. If competitors are successful in their Olympic
bids, NBC and its fledging cable/local multicast network, Universal
Sports, as well as Comcast's own Versus, would be left in the cold.
Though NBC's last summer event, the 2008 Beijing Games, proved a wild
success in terms of ratings, it didn't follow to the same degree
financially. At first NBC said it actually lost money; then it said
the profit was a very modest 3%/ Again, this was with some of the best
ratings in some time for the Summer Olympics. All of which has us
wondering, how much would NBC's new potential controlling owners want
to pony up the next time around for the games?
The good news is that big TV events can be a hit. So far, though,
monetizing big sports events hasn't always worked out -- CBS with its
March Madness NCAA Tournament being an exception.
Though NBC distributed the most Olympic programming ever -- on network
TV, cable TV, the Internet, and mobile -- some advertising support
didn't materialize. This was especially true with those events airing
on its Web sites.
The winds are already changing when it comes to monetizing premium
Internet video, with a trend toward more consumer-fee based efforts
and less ad-supported only businesses. Would Comcast/NBC start
charging for content on Hulu.com, Fancast.com, UniversalSports.com,
Versus.com, or Comcast On Demand service?
If the deal goes ahead, Comcast will be knee-deep in the added expense
of operating a big media/TV/film company with NBC Universal in the
coming years -- if not even more costs, with the prospect of owning
more of NBC Universal in the coming years.
For the 1996 Summer Games, and all Olympic Games from 2000 to 2008,
NBC paid a total of $3.5 billion. For the 2010 Winter Olympics and
2012 Summer Olympics, NBC paid another $2.2 billion. How will the big
operator stomach spending more lavishly on future Olympics?
Whatever U.S. network gets the TV rights to the 2014 and 2016 games
has already suffered a blow. U.S.-based Summer Olympic events always
show up with generally better ratings among TV viewers. But 2016
Summer Olympics contender Chicago didn't even place -- coming in
fourth after Rio, Madrid, and Tokyo.
Not even done with its proposed NBC transaction, Comcast already has
more work cut out for it. |
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