• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, July 13, 2009

NBC is pissed at the United States Olympic Committee -- and the International Olympic Committee is pissed at the USOC. This is all according to The New York Times.

 

Years of investment by NBC in the Olympic brand won't get the network to be part of a cable channel being planned by the USOC.

But the battle won't end there. NBC is ragging on the channel. Why? Seems it wanted a significant stake in the channel -- something the USOC was not about give up. Instead the USOC made a deal with Comcast, a smart move in order to get some significant coverage.

NBC believes the channel won't work because of its focus on less-popular sports. But NBC's own Universal Sports -- part-cable TV, part-local digital signal, part-broadband -- is also an entity that airs less-viewed Olympic sports, as well as highly popular sports like swimming.

NBC hopes that any bigger Olympic TV channel would be eventually developed around its new Universal Sports media platform that sits on some cable systems and local stations' digital spectrum.

The IOC is pissed because it doesn't want to anger long-time TV partner NBC Universal -- especially since NBC surprised with record ratings for the Beijing Summer Olympics.

To that end, the USOC will be missing some major cross-promotional support for its new channel. Marketing any new TV enterprise is tough -- especially a small, digital-only cable channel. Comcast can only provide so much cable advertising/promo messaging time. Instead the new Olympic TV network will have to buy its way to bigger marketing heights.

NBC seemed quick to get to the Times to air its displeasure -- possibly with the chance of pressuring USOC to reconsider. Don't be surprised if NBC gets a way back in.