Date: 8th September 2000

NBC Goes For Gold- And Finds It


One week before the start of the summer Olympics in Sydney on Sept. 15, NBC announced Thursday that it has sold out all available ad time, generating $900 million in revenue -- 30 percent more than it had expected. Somewhat surprisingly, it also indicated that it will reduce the number of commercial minutes per hour -- from 9.50 minutes in 1996 to 9.00 minutes this year. The network also said that it is expecting an average 18.1 rating for the Olympics coverage and has guaranteed advertisers at least 90 percent of that target. (If the minimum is not achieved, it will offer make-goods.) Today's (Friday) New York Daily News quoted one media buyer as saying that NBC collected $600,000 for each 30-second spot, versus $420,000 four years ago.

Source: Studio Briefing