Dick Ebersol, chairman of NBC Sports and Olympics, said that sales to date are over $800 million and "we expect to close it out around Labour Day (Sept. 4) at about $900 million." The network had aimed for gross advertising sales of $780 million for the Sydney Games, he said.
By comparison, gross ad revenues from the Atlanta Games were $680 million, then a record.
Speaking at NBC's Rockefeller Centre headquarters, Ebersol told reporters: "At first, we were thinking that Sydney would lose money, but now we are already assured of a small profit."
The network, which paid $3.5 billion for the broadcast rights to the next five Olympics, announced it will air a total of 441.5 hours of the Sydney Games on its NBC television network as well as on cable channels MSNBC and CNBC, nearly three times the coverage in Atlanta.
Asked if advertisers were turned off by the bribery scandal in Salt Lake City over the 2002 winter Games, Ebersol said: "The effect on viewers has been almost nonexistent, and advertisers are not looking at that (scandal) as affecting the Olympics."
Salt Lake City organisers spent $1 million to buy the votes of members of the International Olympic Committee.
NBC, owned by General Electric Co., will also broadcast the 2002 winter Games in Salt Lake City, the 2004 Athens summer Games, the 2006 winter and 2008 summer Games.
Because of the 12-hour time difference between Australia and the eastern United States, American viewers will only see taped versions of events in primetime, although some live games and events will be seen on cable.
As in previous years, primetime coverage will be dominated by "family-friendly" sports - swimming and diving, track and field, gymnastics, basketball and volleyball.
Ebersol said the over-the-air NBC network coverage will be split into mornings, primetime and late-night segments for 162.5 hours over 16 days.
MSNBC will concentrate on team sports, carrying 214 hours over 18 days, including complete soccer matches. CNBC will air 65 hours, including two hours of boxing every night.
The coverage will be peppered with what the network executives call "story-telling" - sometimes sentimental video snapshots of individual competitors with "compelling stories."
Asked if he was concerned that the Olympics might have to compete for viewers with baseball, hockey and football, Ebersol said the Games attracted a different kind of audience: some 48 percent women and 16 percent children, compared with roughly 75 percent male audience for the other sports.
Viewers will be able to get the latest results in real time on a NBC Web site (http://www.nbcolympics.com).
Reuters
NBC expects to sell nearly $1 billion in advertising for the Sydney 2000 Olympics this summer, and has already sold more advertising than the record sum from the Atlanta Games in 1996.
