With fewer than 90 days to go before the Olympic torch arrives at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, NBC Universal still has a solid chunk of inventory left to sell. And while the ad marketplace has begun showing signs of life in the past few weeks, the Peacock faces an uphill climb if it is to hit its volume target.
Per media agency estimates, NBCU must move between 30 percent and 35 percent of its 2010 Winter Games avails if it’s to be wrapped by the time the first athlete points his skis down the jump at Whistler Olympic Park. That NBC is pacing behind precedent isn’t exactly an unexpected development, given the recession. In late November 2006, the network was about 85 percent sold out for the Torino Games, well on its way to setting a record haul of $930 million. That same year saw the U.S. economy grow 2.7 percent.
Four years ago, sponsors of NBC’s Winter Olympics telecast paid between $500,000 and $700,000 per :30, and an ad in the 2010 Games could fetch as much as $800,000. That said, media buyers suggested that NBC is now much more flexible on pricing.
via MediaWeek.
Two words: Fire Sale!
They shoul use some of that time to advertise the snot out of what few decent/marginally performing shows that they’ve got. The peacock is not likely to get a better opportunity to promote their network to thIs large a sample of viewers for some time to come. I say sell what they can and invest the rest in growing an audience.
Packy, I assume this 30% is outside of whatever time they’ve already set aside for in-house promos.
NBC DESERVES THE BAD LUCK! THEY ARE BEING PUNISHED JUSTLY FOR CANCELLING ‘KINGS’, which was the best show they’ve had in their hands in 10 years….and they blew it, the idiots blew it.
Phil, Kings got horrible ratings. They did the right thing by canceling it. We would be making fun of NBC if Kings was still on the air, that’s how bad the ratings were! I give NBC a lot of criticism normally, but they did the right thing when they canceled Kings!
Philflipt88 says November 15, 2009 at 4:14 pm:
“KINGS…the best show…in 10 years”
Are you sure that it was good? Was it a chore to watch? According to comments on this site, that is an indication of quality.
Double the quality value if you continued to watch the show in an attempt to understand it.
Even with the recession, it seems a little odd to me that ad sales are so slow.
I mean, with it being in Vancouver, the timezones pretty much match up so the live coverage will be at a reasonable time, so I imagine it will be one of the higher-rated Winter Olympics.
Fill up all the unused time with Chuck ads.
the logo above looks like an obese person haha
I’m sure they’ll find plenty of Chuck, Jay Leno, Parenthood and Day One ads to fill it in with.
NBC surely left room for promos. This 30 percent must be separate. NBC better hope for an American to win a few gold medals early in the Olympiad and boost the numbers. Then later ads can be sold for top dollar. Sure, it’s a risk but a fire sale for one of NBC’s top properties is a worse option.
so excited!
watch out for me
KINGS was great but admittedly a bit highbrow for broadcast TV, even for the network that gave us WEST WING once upon a time (but I give major props to ANYONE with balls enough to put on a show that uses iambic pentameter with modern dialogue – dope!). Shoulda been on cable (AMC? I hear “story matters” there lol) from the jump. It’d be as if MAD MEN were on NBC. They’d draw the same audience and people would howl at NBC to cancel it, quality be damned.
RIP, KINGS. RIP.
Nobody is going to watch the Winter Olympics, especially anyone in the Sunbelt America, perhaps except me.
Jeffster rocks out at the Olympic village in a decked-out Ford! Chuck and Morgan dash about Vancouver with Subway sandwiches to give away! Yvonne checks out the latest spy-ware chic and gadgets at Target, Wal-Mart, Neiman Marcus, Apple, Macy’s and others! Casey stocks up on the latest tools and equipment at Sears, K-Mart, and sporting good stores! (including Craftsman tools!)
Just thought I would throw that out there for the Chuck fans.
No Targets, Neiman Marcus or Macy’s in Canada.
Maybe Zellers, Holt Renfrew and HBC?
I can’t see too many companies paying those outrageous prices for ad time – not in this economy and not when you can get a better target audience on cable channels. For example, all home improvement, landscaping, and like stuff would do better in my opinion on HGTV, DIY networks. There are a few products that can appeal to a wide audience but I doubt that many whose companies want to pay those prices. The automobile industry can’t afford those prices given the economy.