Advertisers make $900-million bet on Olympic Winter Games

[unhappycamper]

http://www.latimes.com/business/la-et-ct-olympics-ads-20140206,0,4780680.story



Despite threats of terrorism and other problems at the Games, no major advertiser has canceled its order for commercial time during NBCUniversal's 1,539 hours of coverage.

Advertisers make $900-million bet on Olympic Winter Games
By Meg James
February 7, 2014, 5:00 a.m.

The lighting of the Olympic flame in Russia will launch a nearly $900-million bet by U.S. advertisers that this year's Winter Games will become a feel-good event for television audiences.

Leading up to Friday's official opening of the XXII Olympic Winter Games, most of the attention has centered on difficulties — and not the athletes.

The Sochi athletic competitions will be unfolding against a backdrop of threats of terrorist attacks, allegations of corruption, tense U.S.-Russia relations and protests over Russia's controversial anti-gay laws.

Still, U.S. advertisers have been undeterred. No major advertiser has canceled its order for commercial time during NBCUniversal's unprecedented 1,539 hours of coverage of the Games.

[OnlinePoker]

1. I used to watch the Olympics coverage extensively

Around the mid-80s, I just stopped, about the time the "dream teams" came on the scene. The drug scandals and money issues turned me off to the whole thing. Vancouver (30 km from here) hosted the winter Olympics in 2010 and I never watched one minute of coverage and won't watch any of Sochi either. It's just an example of bread and circuses...a distraction to keep us from questioning all the other shit that's going on.