Comcast Execs Optimistic For Olympics This Year
Even without the expected boost from carrying Olympics coverage, Peacock remains well ahead of internal projections and hit 33 million signups this week. Fourth quarter broadcast revenues were down 12% to $2.78 billion, partially offset by double-digit increases in retransmission consent fees.
When NBC revealed its streaming-war entry Peacock to investors in January, presenters made no secret of their big weapon: the Tokyo Olympics. With Tuesday’s postponement of the games as a result of the coronavirus, whether Peacock should launch as planned on July 15 is suddenly in question, too.
The coronavirus crisis has postponed the 2020 Olympic Games, a key TV event for NBCUniversal.
Imagine if your birthday, wedding and college graduation, all scheduled to take place over a two-week period, were suddenly pushed back by a year. That’s how companies that were depending on the 2020 Tokyo Olympics to take place this summer must be feeling today.
TOKYO (AP) — The International Olympic Committee along with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and local organizers have decided that the Tokyo Games cannot go ahead as scheduled this year because of the coronavirus outbreak. The IOC says the games will be held “not later than summer 2021” but they will still be called the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Exclusives
Veteran International Olympic Committee member Dick Pound told USA Today Sports Monday afternoon that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games are going to be postponed, likely to 2021, with the details to be worked out in the next four weeks. “On the basis of the information the IOC has, postponement has been decided,” Pound said in a phone interview. “The parameters going forward have not been determined, but the Games are not going to start on July 24, that much I know.”
The International Olympics Committee will take a month to decide whether the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics can proceed as planned, given the global spread of coronavirus, a move that would potentially wreak havoc on the fortunes of hundreds of athletes, the media industry and the plans of many big-spending advertisers.
The International Olympic Committee is facing its strongest headwinds in decades as it briefed national committees on Wednesday on the state of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics amid the coronavirus pandemic, with voices of dissent growing louder. The IOC has remained committed to staging the Tokyo Games as planned from July 24 to Aug. 9, saying on Tuesday after a meeting with international sports federations that measures against the virus were delivering results.
The International Olympic Committee and local organizers say the games are on, but the clock is ticking. The fate of the Tokyo Games touches 11,000 Olympic and 4,400 Paralympic athletes, coaches and sports officials, local organizers, the Japanese government and national morale, international broadcasters, fans, and world sponsors. Add to this hotels, airlines, and taxi drivers — and even 80,000 unpaid volunteers who will miss a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
NBC Sports said Tuesday it had passed $1.25 billion in Olympic ad sales and sold 90% of its inventory, with nearly five months still to go before the opening ceremonies.
Comcast Chairman-CEO Brian Roberts expressed cautious optimism that the summer Olympics in Tokyo will proceed as scheduled despite growing fears that the coronavirus outbreak could force a postponement to the games set for July 24-Aug. 9. “What I know is it’s full-steam ahead,” Roberts said Tuesday. If the Tokyo games are postponed, NBCU has insurance to mitigate the losses for the company, Roberts said.
Tokyo has no Plan B for this year’s Summer Olympics despite alarm over the spread of the coronavirus in Japan and elsewhere with under five months before the event, a senior official said on Friday. Having prepared for years and invested some $12 billion, Japan is eager to quell fears the Games might be called off, postponed or moved to a different location due to the coronavirus.
Eight months before the start of the Toyko Summer Olympics, NBCUniversal says it has pulled more than $1 billion in national TV ad revenues — a double-digit percentage gain vs. the same time period prior to the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. Dan Lovinger, executive vp of ad sales, NBC Sports Group, says about half of the Toyko Olympic advertisers are new marketers.
