Olympics Producer Has First Solo Stint Leading Team

With the Winter Olympics set to begin this Thursday in Sochi, the pressure is on NBCUniversal to turn its telecast of the games into a ratings as well as financial success, WSJ notes.

The network is banking on the promotional potential of the Olympics to help it cement a recent surge in its popularity, following years in the ratings doldrums.

What’s more, NBCUniversal needs to turn a “comfortable” profit, according to NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus–something the network didn’t do at the last Winter Games.

Much of the responsibility falls to Jim Bell, a veteran producer overseeing NBC’s Olympics broadcast. The challenges include how to keep viewers interested when live streaming and social media makes spoilers of the results likely. And with a nine-hour time difference between the East Coast and Sochi, the games won’t air during the prime-time hours that advertisers pay a premium for, the story notes.

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