Commentary
NBC Olympics Programmatic: Will Brands Stay When The Games End?
- by Wayne Friedman , Staff Writer, August 7, 2024
NBCUniversal says 70% advertisers for the Paris Olympics are new. That is good news for any TV-streaming seller of video advertising in a world where sports-rights fees keep rising.
One point to consider here is how much programmatic efforts -- in terms of buying Olympics ad inventory through online-automated systems, opened by NBCU for this event -- are contributing to these results?
About 55% of programmatic advertisers are spending less, according to independent demand-side advertising platform the Trade Desk.
NBCU has been making Olympic inventory available to media buyers via private marketplace packages from The Trade Desk and FreeWheel, NBCU's sister business also owned by Comcast Corp.
One report says Trade Desk clients' campaigns reached 900,000 households through the first weekend of the event, offering 350 million daily impressions.
By contrast -- and looking more broadly, when including four major NBCU linear TV networks, NBC Television Network, USA Network, E!, and CNBC -- this totaled 4.4 billion impressions over that same three day weekend period, averaging 1.5 billion impressions per day, according to EDO Ad EnGage.
There are a couple of key questions going forward for new TV-streaming brands.
What is the average spend of those programmatic advertisers, who are believed to be mostly digital-first, first-time CTV advertisers?
A bigger question is what part of NBCU's entire $1.25 billion in ad revenue spent for the games (so far) are coming from these new programmatic advertisers, as well as what bigger piece is going to all digital video NBCU platforms -- including that of Peacock.
Cost-per-thousand viewers (CPMs) is another question mark, especially as it concerns Peacock's airings of Paris Olympics.
Pricing for this premium programming content -- all digital live and replay Olympic programming -- is almost double that of non-sports programming, with a $55-$60 price CPM point. Highlight Olympic programming segments come in at the $40-45 level.
By contrast, media-buying executives have told TV Watch that Peacock's averaged non-sports CPM is around the $20-25 range.
One big hope for NBC going forward is how many of these new advertisers can it retain in the future for other live sports, and perhaps even for regular scripted and unscripted entertainment.
This story has been updated.
Wayne Friedman is West Coast Editor of MediaPost. You can reach Wayne at wayne@mediapost.com.
I think as addressable grows and improves, the outcomes for the advertiser will need to factor in these conversations Total ad spend is all fine and dandy, but someone has to buy their stuff or the whole thing falls apart.