NBCU Still Planning for Summer Olympics

If NBCUniversal is anxious about how coronavirus may affect its plans for the Olympic Games, it is trying not to show it, The NY Times reports.

“The Olympics are obviously on everybody’s mind,” Brian Roberts, the chief executive of Comcast, NBCUniversal’s parent company, said at a conference on Tuesday. “What I know is, it’s full steam ahead. We’re getting ready. We’re excited.”

The media giant has been the main broadcaster of the Summer Games since 1988 and the Winter Games since 2002. In 2014, it paid roughly $7.7 billion to retain the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2032.

NBCUniversal has sold more than $1.25 billion in advertising commitments, or nearly 90 percent of the available ad space, to go with 7,000 hours of broadcast, streaming and social media content, the company said on Tuesday. It plans to deploy more than 2,000 people to Japan for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, which start July 24.

The coronavirus could disrupt not only NBCUniversal’s coverage of the Games but its advertising arrangements, sponsorship deals and promotional events.