…Given the steep rise in the Olympics rights fees, the likelihood of NBC sauntering out of Beijing with a few extra bucks in its pocket is up there with Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding joining forces to revive the Ice Capades. When NBC renewed its contract through the 2032 Summer Games, Comcast plunked down $7.75 billion, and while the cost of each individual event has not been disclosed, historical precedent would put the price of carrying these Winter Olympics somewhere around $975 million.
Even with the savings that came with keeping the majority of the staff back home in Stamford, Conn.—only 600 production, engineering and operations workers made it to China, a far cry from the 2,000 employees that were on the ground in Pyeongchang—Beijing was all but destined to break NBC’s money-making streak. The sense of resignation was hard to miss; NBC Sports Group chairman Pete Bevacqua earlier this month acknowledged the difficulty of staging two COVID-stunted Olympics in a half-year window…