You are viewing the archive: “Olympics TV Rights”

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 that the company plans to bring Potter to Universal Studios Hollywood, even as he gave analysts attending the UBS Annual Global Media and Communications Conference every reason to believe that they’re accurate. Indeed, he seemed determined to avoid making news, sticking instead to Comcast’s familiar talking points: He acknowledged that there are “challenges” at NBC but says it’s also ”an opportunty for us,” adding that Comcast is “investing where we can have a level of success.” He vowed to be ”disciplined” in bidding for sports programming, calling Comcast’s agreement in June to pay $4.4B for U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics from 2014 to 2020 “a smart deal for us.” The company also talked up its new pact to sell wireless spectrum to Verizon Wireless, with the companies cross-selling each other’s products. “We don’t have to build a wireless network,” Comcast Cable CEO Neil Smit says. “We’re thrilled.” He noted that Comcast will be able to sell Verizon Wireless phone services even in markets where the cable company competes with Verizon’s FiOS video and broadband offering.

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CBS Chief Les Moonves Wonders: What Will Hulu Bidders Get For $2B?

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday September 15, 2011 @ 10:28am PDTTags: CBS, Hulu, Les Moonves, NBC, Network TV Advertising, Olympics, Olympics TV Rights, Showtime

The companies bidding to buy Hulu may not want to talk to CBS chief Les Moonves. ”What are they getting and how long are they getting it?” he mused in an interview Thursday with UBS investment banking chief Aryeh Bourkoff at The Paley Center for Media. “Are they buying two years of programs for $2B? I don’t know. I shouldn’t say more — I’ll get in trouble.” CBS is the only major network that isn’t part of the Hulu joint venture. And Moonves says he’s glad he made that decision. “We want to control our content.” Online broadcasts cannibalize TV viewing and syndication and that’s something “we’re not going to do. Even a little bit. … We protect the family jewels.” But his company’s programming on premium channel Showtime is different. CBS is gearing up to launch Showtime Anywhere — a digital service for Showtime’s cable subscribers. ”We are half the way getting there,” he said. Like Time Warner’s HBO Go, Showtime Anywhere would enable customers to watch shows from the premium channel on demand via broadband including on mobile devices like tablets and smartphones. Moonves adds that, also like HBO, he won’t charge extra for Showtime Anywhere.

When it comes to the ad market, the CBS chief showed remarkable self-awareness for a media exec saying, “I know I sound a little Pollyannaish.” But he was consistent with the see-no-evil projection he made yesterday during an investor conference. “The world wants us to tell them that the sky is falling. It’s not.” He added that ”the signs are nothing like they were in 2007 and 2008. The only place we’ve seen real softening is with Japanese auto makers. And that’s coming back. … Toyota’s coming back bigger in November and December.” Read More »

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Can NBC Make Money From The 2018 Olympics In Pyeongchang?

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Wednesday July 6, 2011 @ 9:04am PDTTags: 2014 Winter Olympics, 2016 Summer Olympics, Comcast, NBCUniversal, Olympics, Olympics TV Rights

Comcast’s NBCUniversal will face a potentially serious programming and financial challenge in 2018 now that the International Olympic Committee has announced that the Winter Games that year will be held in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The media company recently agreed … Read More »

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CBS’ Les Moonves Says Fox’s Upfront ‘Game’ Sold Broadcasters Short

By DAVID LIEBERMAN, Executive Editor | Thursday June 2, 2011 @ 9:55am PDTTags: ABC, Broadcast Upfront Market, CBS, Fox, Les Moonves, Olympics TV Rights, TV Upfront Market

CBS chief Les Moonves pretty much accused Fox this morning of spoiling the advertising upfront season for the broadcast networks by failing to hold out for higher prices. CBS is angling for increases of about 18% vs last year in the price advertisers pay to reach … Read More »

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IOC: NBC Will Still Bid On Olympics Despite Departure Of Dick Ebersol

By PATRICK HIPES, Managing Editor | Thursday May 19, 2011 @ 5:13pm PDTTags: Brian Roberts, Comcast, Dick Ebersol, International Olympic Committee, Mark Lazarus, NBC, NBCUniversal, Olympics TV Rights, Steve Burke, U.S. Broadcast Rights

Good Riddance, NBC Sports’ Dick Ebersol

International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge said today that Comcast chairman and CEO Brian Roberts and NBCUniversal bosses Steve Burke and Gary Zenkel have assured him that the resignation of NBC Sports & Olympics president Dick Ebersol does not alter NBC’s plan to bid on the next round of U.S. Olympic broadcast rights next month, a competition that is expected to include ABC/ESPN and Fox. Rogge told the Associated Press that the news of Ebersol’s departure was a “shock,” certainly in part because the move comes less than three weeks before the IOC opens bidding in Laussane, Switzerland, on deals for the 2014 and 2016 Olympics. It’s a process Ebersol has overseen countless times for NBC, which has broadcast every Summer Olympics since 1988 and every Winter Games since 2002. (In 2003, NBC won the current rights package with a $2.2 billion bid to the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics — the network reportedly lost $200 million on that one — and the upcoming 2012 Summer Olympics in London.) ”The three reiterated the full support of NBC/Comcast for the Olympic movement and the Olympic Games,” Rogge told AP. “They said they would come for the bidding. They … made it very clear that the resignation of Dick had absolutely nothing to do with the bidding.” Read More »

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