• Bloomberg, Friday, June 10, 2011 3 PM

Analysts question whether Comcast's shelling out $4.38 billion for U.S. broadcasting rights for the next four Olympics games will really pay off for the company, which outbid its competitors for the rights by about $1 billion.

NBC has famously lost much money on Olympics deals before, but benefited by certain "ancillary benefits," like parent company GE's being able to sell its products during commercials -- which Comcast can't do.

However, Comcast can benefit from other "halo effects," like cross-promotion between the NBC broadcast channel and Comcast's cable systems, according to some analysts.

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