Marketing and all things related

At their fourth quarter earning call, GE Chairman and CEO Jeff Immelt told the investment community that NBC would likely only breakeven with advertising for the Torino Olympic Games. While prime-time spots are worth $ 700,000 each, the network only expects to book between $ 650 and $ 750 million in advertising revenues. This is well below their original projection of $ 900 million, which would have represented an aggressive 22% increase over results from the Salt Lake City winter games. NBC estimates their production and permission expenses for the game will reach about $ 750 million.

Marketing Blurb loves the Olympics, but reminds networks that viewers are really not interested in watching athletes achieve excellence in performance. Rather, audiences grow quickly annoyed when Olympic coverage pre-empts their favorite mindless sit-com or police drama.