NBCUniversal secures its largest-ever advertiser roster for Tokyo Olympics

More than a year after the 2020 Summer Olympics were first delayed due to pandemic concerns, the games’ perennial broadcaster NBCUniversal has revealed it expects to have the largest line-up of advertisers in the event’s TV history and exceed the more than $1 billion ad sales total recorded during the Rio Games in 2016. The International Olympic Committee has been steadfast in its mission of holding the competition in Tokyo on schedule next month—despite some observers’ concerns about the spread of COVID-19 in under-vaccinated Japan—and advertisers appear to have latched onto that confidence. NBCUniversal anticipates that its U.S. broadcast of the international event will attract more than 120 advertisers, a 20% increase from the number of brands who snapped up airtime during the previous Summer Olympics five years ago. Of those, more than 80 will be first-time advertisers in the Games. “There is an intangible excitement around the Tokyo Olympics unlike anything we’ve seen before,” says Mark Marshall, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. “Our partners and advertisers feel this same energy, and we are extremely proud of the team for their hard work in bringing in so many new and returning advertisers across virtually every category, despite the delays,” he continues. While specifics are still being hammered out—and will continue to be even after the Opening Ceremony on July 23—Marshall says NBCUniversal’s pacing is “very strong” and the company fully expects to have exceeded the $1.2 billion in ad sales it completed in 2016 during Rio Olympics by the close of the Tokyo Games. Compared to the last Summer Olympics, NBCUniversal has recorded a major increase in technology, pharmaceutical and social advertisers with “double and triple gains” recorded across those three categories, the broadcaster says in a press statement. Live sports will help herald a banner couple of years for NBC, with the Tokyo Games signaling the beginning of an unprecedented slew of back-to-back tentpole sports programming made possible, in part, by rescheduled 2020 events. Following Tokyo’s Closing Ceremony in August, NBC’s coverage of Sunday Night Football as well as the National Football League’s Wild Card and Divisional Playoff games will lead it into early 2022, when the next Winter Olympics are slated to be held in Beijing—the shortest gap between two Olympic Games since 1988. February 2022 will also see the network host Super Bowl LVI, with Telemundo then carrying Spanish-language coverage of the FIFA World Cup in Qatar later next year. NBCUniversal recently inked a media rights deal to retain its status as the exclusive U.S. broadcaster for the Olympic Games through 2032.

NBCUniversal secures its largest-ever advertiser roster for Tokyo Olympics

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