NBC to Lose Money on Winter Olympics

American broadcaster NBC Universal says it expects to lose money televising the Winter Olympics from Vancouver next month.

NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol said that while advertising sales were soft for much of last year, they have picked up as the Olympics drew near. The loss comes primarily due to the stiff rights fee NBC paid to broadcast the games, he said.

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NBC paid (Canadian) $820 million for the rights to televise the Winter Games. That compares to the (Canadian) $613 million paid for the rights to televise the Olympics in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

Ebersol said it will be the first time NBC has lost money on the games since he began producing the telecasts from Barcelona in 1992.

The head of NBC's parent company, General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt, told investors recently that he expected NBC would lose "a couple hundred million bucks" on the games.

NBC won't cut back on its coverage plans due to the financial problems, the network said.
By David Bauder