• by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 6, 2012

TV's loss leaders: We need them, we understand them. Then just when we count them out, they can give us a bonus.

NBC's Olympics seem to be in this category. The Winter 2010 games in Vancouver lost around $225 million. The London Olympics were supposed to swim in the same pool of red ink.

Now NBC says the London games should come close to breaking even, or possibly make a bit of money.

Where are those extra ad dollars coming from -- in the third quarter, no less? The Internet? Outdoor advertising? Radio? Branded entertainment?  We’re not sure.

All this just shows how desperate viewers and marketers are for big event programming. Now you know why fees for 30-second Super Bowl spots keep rising, marketers keep buying, and viewership regularly sets records. Big TV events are few and far between.

At the same time, the other side of TV – such as regular broadcast network comedy, drama and reality series – has generally been losing ratings and viewership ground.

The rich get richer, and the poor head in the other direction. (Kind of like incomes of average U.S. families, I'm told). Good news: Everyone loves the rich; the poor, not so much. This is TV capitalism at work.

When things are good, everyone wants to get on board. From somewhere, big third quarter TV scatter dollars are running to NBC. Even CBS' Les Moonves has taken notice.

Four years ago in Beijing, NBC also benefited from somewhat-higher-than-expected ratings.

Now that you some of you have gambled well, what about raising the stakes? Can NBC use the big promotional Olympic tool to launch new shows? This hasn't gone too well for the network in the past. Some say the Olympic audience is just a rented one that comes for the swimming, gymnastics and track and field events, and then leaves for greener pastures when everything is done.

But for NBC at the moment, it sure brings the buzz back for the long-time fourth place network, which rose to third place this past season.

With advertisers making manic mid-summer calls to NBC like in the old days when it had  "Must See TV," NBC seems -- dare we say -- golden.