Final Word: Think NBC is pandering to Olympians? It has to
Feb 11, 2014, 10:03 PM | Updated: 10:03 pm
The Olympics sure do make for some interesting viewing.
Monday night, I had to go to bed. It was past 10 and my husband and son could NOT turn off the women’s downhill slalom event.
Look, the hill is freakishly steep and the girls on the skis? They’re GORGEOUS. Seriously, since when did they start making women downhill skiers (and snowboarders, for that matter) look like movie stars?
Anyway, the games are great and its a lot better than the suppposed reality TV we usually watch.
And it gets good ratings. Well, it ought to.
If you tune in to NBC at all in the next two weeks, you might wonder if there is ANYTHING else going on on the globe. For NBC, the answer is a decided no.
Why? Because in 2011, NBC shelled out $4.38 BILLION to the International Olympic Committee in hopes of winning an exclusive broadcast license through 2020. To broadcast Sochi alone, NBC has paid $775 million.
While that’s a lot of money by any standard, you may not realize that’s 62 percent of the entire Winter Games braodcast revenue.
So, if it seems that NBC has adopted the athletes, that Matt Lauer is snuggling with a snowbarder, or that Jenna Bush Hager is spending too much time drinking vodka with the locals, you’re correct.
But they HAVE to. They’ve paid so much for it, NBC may be supporting one-fifth of the entire Winter Games.
I wonder why they didn’t make sure it got held in a better place and the hotels all got finished?
Lillehammer, Norway, anyone?
