NBC’s Olympic Fears: Broadcaster Awaits Decision On Tokyo Games

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The conglomerate has spent billions on rights and bet on the games to boost its streaming platform — and will take a hit if the event is scrapped or delayed.

The Tokyo Olympics, set to begin July 23, are six months away. But with COVID-19 cases surging in Japan and around the world and vaccine supplies falling short, the Olympic torch is in danger of going unlit.

For Comcast’s NBCUniversal, it would also mean a major missed opportunity. The conglomerate was looking to the Olympics to turbocharge its Peacock streaming service. Last year’s pause forced the company to circle back to its advertising partners for revised terms, a source at a competing network notes.

Indeed, both Comcast and Discovery Inc. — which has European rights and planned to use the Games to promote its Discovery+ streaming service in some Euro markets — say they are fully insured against their Olympics expenses. “There is protection, fortunately, unlike in the NFL and some other places where you pay hell or high water,” says Moody’s senior vp Neil Begley.

“The financial savings for them is not immaterial,” Begley says of the money Comcast would save by not airing the Games. “But you are not going to find something that will replace the Olympics on Peacock, particularly as people are disengaging from traditional TV.”

 

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Surely NBC could air the exact same set of profiles that they spend all their time every Olympics. They don’t really bother so much with the actual events, so if there are no events not much will change.

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