- Your Profile
- In the News
- Box Office
- Development
- Production
- Job Market
- Calendar
|
 |
NBC RINGS 'EM IN WITH OLYMPICS Monday, August 18 2008 
After
deserting
their
television
sets
in
droves
earlier
in
the
summer,
Americans
have
returned
to
them
en
masse
for
the
Olympics,
with
NBC
averaging
more
than
30
million
viewers
per
night
during
the
contests'
first
week.
In
an
interview
with
CNBC
on
Friday,
NBC
chief
Jeff
Zucker
remarked
that
the
success
of
the
Olympics
telecasts
shows
"that
if
you
put
on
great
programming
that
people
want
to
watch,
they
they'll
show
up."
Even,
apparently
on
(more)GE BIG WINNER IN BEIJING Monday, August 18 2008 The Olympics have already paid off handsomely for General Electric, NBC's corporate parent, GE Chairman Jeff Immelt said today (Monday). In an interview with the Associated Press, Immelt said that in addition to the reported $1 billion in ad sales generated by the Olympics for NBC, sales by GE subsidiaries of power and other equipment for the sports venues have brought in another $700 million. He reiterated that GE has no plans to sell NBC. (more) |
|
|
The record TV ratings of the Beijing Olympics during their first week despite intensive online coverage may dispel the general notion that the Internet poses a threat to broadcasters, advertising representatives attending the Games have told the International Herald Tribune. "People have always been talking about how digital media will take away audiences from TV," Chris Reitermann, president of the Chinese unit of OgilvyOne, a direct marketing agency, told the newspaper. "That's just not happening. Maybe this will be a wake-up call for a lot of people." Some advertisers acknowledged that before the ratings results came in they were worried that the money they had spent on TV ads -- reportedly around $700,000 each -- would be drawn down by the Internet coverage. But Kevin Alavy, who heads a research arm of media buyers Interpublic Group, said, "We're living in an era of audience fragmentation, but here's an event that isn't fragmenting but is going through the roof." In an interview with today's New York Times, NBC chief Jeff Zucker said, "It's a great story for network television. ... This proves the pipes still work." (They continued to work on Monday as the Games attracted an average of 25.39 million viewers, dominating all other programming for an 11th straight night.)
