AT OLYMPICS, NBC COLLECTS MORE GOLD (OR GREEN) THAN EXPECTED

NBC, which had previously said that it expected to take a loss of around $100-200 million on its Olympics coverage, has revised its forecast. It’s now expecting to break even. The new forecast came from Comcast CEO Steve Burke during a conference call with analysts on Wednesday. “We feel very good,” he said, “because all of the [advertising] numbers … are significantly better than we projected.” The current estimate is that NBC, together with its cable and Internet siblings, will earn $1.2 billion from advertisers — nearly identical to the $1.18 billion that it paid for broadcast rights to the Games. Asked about the thousands of outraged viewers who have complained about the network’s decision to tape-delay key events so that they can be broadcast in primetime, a spokesman said that they were considered “a small but vocal group.” Advertisers are reacting similarly. Joe Tripodi, chief marketing and commercial officer for Coca-Cola, told the Wall Street Journal, “There will always be individuals who complain about everything, and now, with social media, they have a megaphone to broadcast their opinions over the Internet. … I much prefer the NBC broadcast to theirs.” And Jason Kanefsky, a media buyer at Havas SA’s MPG, told the Journal, “People have a right to complain on social media but that doesn’t always make it relevant. … What is relevant is that people are … tuning in.”