How NBC Won BIG with the Olympics
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When it was revealed that NBC payed a record $900 million to televise the 2008 Summer Olympics, many felt that the price was too high. But in this case, it seems like NBC knew what it was doing as the ratings have been much better than expected. Yes, you could say that they got a little lucky with some intriguing story lines and they probably should cut Michael Phelps a pretty big check. However, they deserve a lot of credit for some actions they took in preparing for the games.
The most important step they took actually happened in October of 2006, when NBC successfully convinced the International Olympic Committee to change the times of event finals in sports that have historically been popular with Americans (namely gymnastics and swimming). You can read this interesting press release issued by U.S. Swimming about this change here. Instead of starting in the evening (Beijing time), these events were staged in the morning (Beijing time). Just by coincidence :), that happens to be prime time on the east coast of the United States.
Why was this timing so important? After all, in the previous Olympics in Sydney and Greece, NBC just taped the popular events and played the tape during prime time. Well, I believe that those days are over where the majority of Americans will not check the internet for results. We simply have so many other options to entertain us and demand to get our information instantaneously. I know that I have been watching more of these Olympics than previous years only because important events have been live. If they were not, I would still be interested in the results, but probably would only have checked out the highlights on sportscenter.
Now let’s see, the 2012 Olympics are in London. Looks like I might invest some money with a British No-Doz company, as they can expect their key Olympic final events to start 1:00 AM local time (for the record, I am joking here). Hey, it might make for a more interesting marathon as runners will have to be equipped with miner’s hats.
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Filed under: Smart Move
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NBC is so smart to change the times of event finals in sports and then play it in prime time.I am sure there are much more american wathing the 2008 olympic game.
You make some good points in the post. I have really enjoyed the Olympics the last few weeks. I think it is cool how it brings the world together. It has never been a secret that it brings in big revenue if executed correctly.