• by Wayne Friedman , April 4, 2023

Even in an uncertain national TV marketplace, NBCUniversal says its advertising sales for the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics are outpacing the previous Tokyo Summer Games.

During a press conference on Tuesday, Dan Lovinger, president of Olympics/LA 2028 Ad and Sponsorship Sales for NBCUniversal, said: “While still very early, I can report we are pacing well ahead at the same point in time of the recent summer games in Tokyo [which aired in the Summer 2023].”

Despite the challenges of the current national TV market, Lovinger said NBCU is working with a number of major multi-year Olympic sponsorship "ring holders," adding: "we have significant support there -- along with the work we have done for LA [Summer Olympics] 2028 sponsorships that spans multi-games. This adds up to no surprise for us.”

Lovinger did not provide specific details in terms of pricing, new advertisers, or ad category changes.

Analysts say the national TV advertising marketplace -- in terms of the near-term scatter TV ad deal-making -- had been weak in fourth-quarter 2021 through the first quarter of 2022. Looking forward, in the second quarter and beyond -- with a possible recession economy looming -- puts even more doubt in the strength of the overall national TV market.

But Lovinger said: “We are very encouraged and believe the marketplace will be robust for the Olympics." He believes there is a better outlook for the Paris event -- coming off two Asia-based Olympics (the Beijing Winter Olympics 2022 and the Tokyo Summer Olympics 2021) with their time-zone issues in terms of live programming and pandemic-related disruptions. “It’s a no brainer for an advertiser to get involved,” he said.

The Tokyo Summer Olympics took in $1.76 billion in advertising revenue for NBCUniversal in 2021.

The Beijing Winter Olympics in 2022 earned $1.25 billion for the media company.