• by Wayne Friedman , July 26, 2021

Opening weekend of the Tokyo Summer Olympics has brought in an estimated $135.6 million in national TV advertising spend across all NBCUniversal TV networks, according to iSpot.tv.

National TV ad spend is down slightly from the first three days of the 2016 Rio Olympics, which earned $150.8 million in estimated ad spend, according to iSpot.tv.

This year so far, there are many more TV commercials -- almost double -- with 3,982 airings of commercials versus 2,169 for the 2016 Rio games.

To date, total impressions are higher for these summer games -- 5.5 billion against 4.7 billion -- across all NBCUniversal networks for the first three days of the 16-day event. This includes national linear TV, time-shifted viewing, as well as local, video-on-demand and streaming/OTT.

Toyota is the biggest spender in the U.S. so far -- at $12.4 million --with 134 airings of commercials across all NBCU networks airing the event. It has garnered the most impressions of any paid advertiser -- 257.3 million impressions.

Toyota pulled back from airing commercials in its home market in Japan, due to polls showing Japanese viewers weren’t interested in the event, given rising pandemic concerns.

In terms of paid-advertising impressions, Walmart is next -- at 197.1 million impressions, coming from 105 airings ($2.6 million in estimated national TV ad spend). Chevrolet comes in at 147.7 million impressions, 93 airings ($5.57 million TV spend).

Geico is at 142.9 million impressions -- with 102 airings and $1.4 million in estimated national TV spend -- while Facebook has 113 million impressions from 71 airings ($3.5 million ad spend), with Visa at 109.2 million impressions, 83 airings ($3.6 million spend).

Nike has 94.2 million impressions, 55 airings ($3.5 million), while Samsung Mobile has 85.2 million impressions; 54 spots ($1.93 million) and Google has 83.2 million impressions, 56 airings ($3.5 million).

For its own businesses, NBCUniversal has aired 259 on-air program/network promotions, yielding 243.5 million impressions -- second only to Toyota in this measure.

For its new premium streaming service, NBCU’s Peacock, has had 189 airings producing 198.1 million impressions.