Winter Olympics

The Sports Business Journal recently published an interesting article about NBC and their struggle to find sponsors for the 2010 Winter Olympics. In spite of the fact that the Summer Games were the most watched TV event in the history of the medium, no one is signing up. The most detail NBC will offer is that they have “several parties” lined up to advertise at the games. 

Part of NBC’s strategy is to offer the games streaming online through their many web channels. This will also be supported by advertising. NBC has decided to only offer online spots to companies who support them on television. 

The motivation behind this is clear. TV commands higher ad rates than online and they don’t want their web presence to cannabalize their network ad dollars.

I’m wondering how many potential web advertisers will be forced to walk away from any Olympic advertising because of this decision. The whole point of the web, from a marketing perspective, is that you can reach a broad audience for relatively little money.