Ratings Dip but NBC Expects a Big Profit

The Winter Olympics may have been beaten in the ratings game by aspiring American idols, dancing celebrities and “Desperate Housewives,” but NBC said Monday that it still expects to bring home the gold -- or at least the silver -- from Turin, Italy.

NBC Universal Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol said on a conference call that parent company NBC Universal will “see a profit between $50 million and $75 million, with the number being closer to $75 million.”

NBC Universal sold about $900 million in advertising time for this year’s Games. It paid $613 million for the rights to broadcast the Games over its flagship broadcast network, cable channels and Spanish-language Telemundo network and is probably going to end up spending about $130 million in production costs.

NBC is charging an average $700,000 for a 30-second spot in prime time. NBC Universal is televising 418 hours of coverage on its various networks and channels.

“We’re sitting on a mountain of more than $900 million in cash between the network, cable and our owned stations for these Games,” Ebersol said, “and I can promise you it’s safe.”

NBC’s prime-time coverage Sunday night averaged an 11.6 rating, an 18 share and an audience of 19.2 million.

The prime-time coverage through Sunday was averaging a 12.1 rating.

NBC guaranteed advertisers an average prime-time rating of between 12 and 14.

Ebersol said it is unlikely his network will have to offer advertisers any “make-goods,” or free advertising, to compensate for lower-than-expected ratings.

“At this point we are not even discussing make-goods, and it’s the belief of the business side of the company that we won’t need to,” Ebersol said.

NBC earned $70 million two years ago for its coverage of the Athens Summer Games, slightly less than its $75 million haul in 2002 for the Salt Lake City Winter Games.

Viewer and advertiser interest is typically higher when the Olympics are held in the U.S.

NBC’s prime-time ratings for the first 10 days of this year’s Games are down about 30% compared to Salt Lake City.

“Are the Olympics off a bit? Yeah, but they are not off one iota from all the other major sports events and certainly not from the major glamour events like the Oscars and Grammys,” Ebersol said.

“You can’t compare these Games to anything other than Nagano, and we’re about 20%-25% off of Nagano. But if you do the comparison between 1998 and 2005, the NBA Finals are off 56% since 1998, the World Series is off 21%, Monday Night Football is off 22%.

“The Academy Awards are off 27%, the Grammys are off 32%.”

There was good news for NBC regarding Daytona 500 ratings.

Sunday’s race drew an 11.3 rating, a 23 share and a viewing audience of 37 million, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research.

The rating was the highest for a NASCAR race, and NBC officials said the Olympics contributed to that.

“This is why the Olympics are so valuable -- they’re an amazingly powerful promotional platform,” said Randy Falco, president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group.