Vancouver 2010: NBC Lacked Foresight in Olympics Bid

The news that NBC will lose about $200 million on the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver has resonated throughout the struggling network. It all goes back to 2003, when NBC paid $820 million for the 2010 Games and $1.18 billion for the 2012 Games in London, greatly outbidding both Fox and ESPN for the rights.

According to The New York Times, Dick Ebersol, the chairman of NBC Universal Sports, believes that the this is the real reason for the $200 million loss rather than the fledgling advertising as a result of the economic recession.

Ebersol also says that he wishes Jeffrey R. Immelt, CEO of NBC’s parent company GE, had waited to reveal the network’s losses on the Olympics until the end of January “so it didn’t cause any disruption of [advertising] sales.”

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