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London Olympics Will Break Even For NBC, Comcast Says

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday August 1, 2012 @ 6:24am PDTTags: 2012 London Olympics, Comcast, NBC Sports & Olympics

“We are way ahead of where we thought we would be,” NBCUniversal chief Steve Burke told analysts this morning in a call to discuss Comcast earnings. London will break even and “given the trends, we stand to make money on future Olympics….All of the numbers are significantly better than we projected in our deal” to buy NBCU, he says. When Comcast was contemplating its acquisition of NBCU it saw that “every 2 years NBCU was losing a lot of money on the Olympics.” It also considered the strong results from the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing to be uncharacteristic due to the excitement over swimmer Michael Phelps’ success. For London “we budgeted closer to (the 2004 Summer Olympics in) Athens than to Beijing” with a possible loss of $200M. But instead of seeing the first five days’ ratings down 20% vs Beijing the numbers from London are running 9% ahead. “Really, a ratings success pretty much across the board,” Burke says. In addition “for the first time we have a strategy that embraces broadcast, digital, and cable.” The company’s efforts to showcase its news properties and NBC Sports Channel mean “it’s clearly something that’s going to benefit our company very broadly….Long term we’re delighted to have the asset.”

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NBC And Panasonic Team To Offer 2012 Olympics In 3D

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Tuesday January 10, 2012 @ 12:36pm PSTTags: 2012 London Olympics, NBC Sports & Olympics, Panasonic

The 3D broadcasts will come a day after the events, and won’t include everything. Still, this is the first time the the Olympics will be available here in 3D. NBC will offer more than 200 hours of 3D broadcasts to every pay TV … Read More »

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Comcast Hints That ‘Harry Potter’ Will Go To Additional Universal Parks: UBS Confab

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Monday December 5, 2011 @ 1:07pm PSTTags: Comcast, NBC, NBC Sports & Olympics, Olympics TV Rights, THe Wizarding World Of Harry Potter, Theme Parks, Universal Islands of Adventure, Verizon FiOS, Verizon Wireless

Comcast CFO Mike Angelakis says that The Wizarding World Of Harry Potter was so successful for Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure that it became “a reset mechanism” for the theme park. But he stopped short of confirming reports … Read More »

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Jim Bell To Top NBCU’s Olympics Coverage

By NELLIE ANDREEVA | Tuesday August 30, 2011 @ 7:57am PDTTags: 2012 London Olympics, NBC, NBC Sports & Olympics, Today
Nellie Andreeva

Today executive producer Jim Bell will executive produce NBCUniversal’s coverage of the 2012 London Olympics. He will succeed former NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol, who executive produced every Olympics from 1992 until his abrupt … Read More »

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