I Just Want You to Link Me

• Johnny Weir plans to skip the 2011-2012 skating season, but still plans to compete in Sochi.  This link is worth it just for the picture of Weir at Gay Pride 2011, with a hairstyle that makes him look like a balding Mexican woman.  Meanwhile, Evgeni Plushenko, who finished second to American Evan Lysacek in Vancouver, has had surgery and kissed and made up with the International Skating Union, so he's planning to be in Sochi.
• I have no idea what this is, but it's happening in Sochi.
• Gamesbids.com reports that Russia's railway infrastructure project is on time, for what it's worth.
• Microsoft is now the the official software supplier to the Sochi Olympics and I have absolutely no idea what anything in the article means.  Russia, of course, has been swimming upstream for years trying to join the World Trade Organization and, for years, a lack of respect for intellectual property rights has been a key sticking point.  Microsoft, in particular, has complained for years about the free distribution of its products in Russia.  Microsoft's most recent interaction with Russia was its condemnation of the Russian government's, uh, selective enforcement of IP rights, a favorite way of the government to shut down uncooperative NGOs. 
• And finally, Around the Rings has a pithy Q & A with Olympic organizer Dimitri Chernyshenko about the "look" of the Games.  

Happy reading, all.  Enjoy the weekend!

NBC Drops $4.83 Billion To Broacast Next Four Olympics

So reporteth the Wall Street Journal:

NBCU's bill will be divided into four parts. It will pay $775 million for 2014, $1.226 billion for 2016, $963 million for 2018 and $1.418 billion for 2020, the IOC said. NBC lost $223 million on the 2010 Vancouver Games and is projecting a $250 million loss for London next year.

In a news conference in Lausanne, Switzerland, Tuesday, Comcast Chief Executive Brian Roberts said he believes the new deal will be profitable but didn't provide specifics. The company has said it plans to spread its coverage across its cable and broadcast networks as well as its digital outlets. The company is betting on the uptick in the ad market and increases in fees from cable companies and TV stations to defray the costs, a person familiar with the matter said.

One big beneficiary is likely to be NBCU's Versus cable sports network, which has long lagged ESPN. "It will finally now become a big-time national sports network," said Rick Gentile, the former executive producer of CBS Sports.

Acknowledging the need to cater to diehard fans and mainstream viewers, NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said NBCU will show every event live on some platform, in addition to sticking with its taped prime-time coverage.

 For me, the really interesting part of this story is the last sentence of the first paragraph: NBC lost $250 million or so on broadcasting the Vancouver Winter Olympics, even with all the hottest events being broadcast during primetime in America.  And, from what I can find, NBC has lost money on every Olympics broadcast since it started broadcasting them in the 80's.  So why on Earth would NBC fork over nearly five billion for the rights to broadcast something that has been a money loser?

Well, as the above "source familiar with the negotiations" notes, NBC is betting on an increase in ad revenue to offset its expected increase in costs, as the network vows to show all events live on some format (hello modern pentathlon on Nat Geo International!).  While a continuing uptick in ad revenues would be huge for NBC, remember that Comcast now owns 51% of NBCUniversal.  By my count, this means that, between NBC and Comcast, there are around 20 channels (not to mention many more websites) on which NBC will be able to broadcast the Olympics and this is where I think the real money is to be made: Comcast can now hold other cable companies such as Time Warner over a barrel to carry Comcast-owned channels that will be showing Olympic content.  Do you want to explain to your subscribers why they can't watch live curling at 3am?  Didn't think so...

Other interesting things about this deal: It was rumored that Fox actually offered more money than did NBC.  What tipped the scales in NBC's favor were, apparently, two things 1) the IOC's familiarity with NBC over the last 20 or so years and 2) the fact that NBC apparently brought 17 execs to Lausanne to pitch the deal and that this apparently greatly excited IOC members (many IOC members, like FIFA members, love nothing more than to be told and shown how important they are, so credit NBC for that).  Other articles have speculated that merely the status that comes with being the Network That Broadcasts the Olympics will help spark general interest in NBC programming and raise ratings, though no amount of Olympic rings underneath the NBC logo can force me to watch The Event.

There are, of course, huge risks involved for NBC; the network bid blind on the 2018 (it is generally thought that South Korea is the front-runner) and 2020 Games and is likely to be staring at a dearth of high-profile events being broadcast during primetime in the US.  Not to mention that the network is going all-in on the Olympics without Dick Ebersol, the long-time head of NBC Sports, who has presided over every NBC Olympic broadcast since 1992 and who recently resigned after the merger of Comcast and NBC.  Ebersol has long been considered one of the brightest executives in the business and made a cottage industry out of identifying and telling the best in human interest stories from each Olympics.  The absence of Ebersol reportedly unnerved even the IOC, so there's a lot of pressure on NBC to get London right in 2012.  NBC has bet a huge of money that it will. 

Sochi Bringing the Party to London

Well, what the hell?  When you're already creating an Olympics from scratch, why not build some of it in London?

That's what is happening in 2012, as Russia plans to showoff for the world, looking to rent space near the Marble Arch to build an ice rink, teach the locals about figure skating and display the culture of both Sochi and the surrounding Krasnodar region.  Says the head of Sochi 2014 Dimitri Chernyshenko:

The public activities will run under the name of Sochi World and will focus on master-classes and spectacular shows on an ice-rink. The aim will be to present a new feature of the Sochi Games by reflecting the many different aspects of Russian culture across all its regions.

I like the idea of 'Sochi World.'  Mostly because I imagine riding Space Mountain through the Caucasus or dodging gunfire from Chechen terrorists on the tea cup ride.  Anyway...

This land is going to cost a shitload to rent, it's just how much, exactly, I haven't been able to determine.  Rent for apartments near the Marble Arch is ridiculous, so I'm assuming this is going to cost the government a small fortune.  Then again, hosting the Olympics is going to cost a large fortune, so I guess you should just go all out at this point.

Odds and Ends for Thursday, March 2

News has kind of been spread out over the last few days, so I thought I'd just hit you with some quick bullet points for today.  Sochi has been all over the news the last few days, but not specifically for the Olympics.  At any rate, it is an indication that Russia is ready for Sochi to grow in international name recognition by hosting key meetings there, etc.  If nothing else, I'm sure they'd be thrilled to have a world leader not named Lukashenko swing through.  Just a thought. 

Also, I need to make this a regular feature (maybe on Fridays) and give it a jazzy name.  Any ideas?  At any rate:

• The Moscow Times has an English-language translation of a rather thoughtful and reasonable article from Kavkazsky Uzel (Caucasian Knot).  In how the high-profile Sochi Games have turned the Circassian genocide from a local into an international issue.  Good reading.
• Globalpost.com reports that Russia has been "scandalized" by the results of the Olympic Mascots voting.  Yes, scandalized.  By voting for a cartoon leopard.
• RIA-Novosti reports that Russia has offered up Sochi to host the next meeting of the NATO-Russia Council.  Well, at least the weather would be nice.
• State-run ITAR-TASS reports that Sochi will also be hosting Azerbaijani President Ilkham Aliyev and Armenian President Serge Sargsyan to discuss a host of issues, particularly the trouble in Nagorno-Karahabkh.  "Moscow shows patience and restraint, when acting as an intermediary in the settlement of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. It is sure that this stand will bring positive results," says an unidentified staffer in the Kremlin.  If only these beady-eyed Caucasians would approach regional security with the same tact as the Russians, we'd have kicked this thing years ago.  Or kicked everybody out, anway.
• And we'll conclude with good ol' fashioned Georgia bashing, courtesy Voice of Russia.  Nice to see a "news source" openly mock a foreign head of state.  Thanks for reading...