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"Back in the latter half of June, I asked a fairly simple question concerning NBC\u2019s Olympic foray on the Web: Will costs outweigh rewards? I imagined that the broadcaster might have to apply red tape to its cost-profit report. Perhaps a whole lot of it, even, particularly given the sheer volume of live and on-demand coverage promised to potential Web viewers. That being said, there\u2019s a number now being floated by eMarketer concerning NBC\u2019s in-video advertising that seems remarkably small. A $5.75 million kind of small.\nA report in today\u2019s Wall Street Journal by Emily Steel references eMarketer\u2019s estimate on advertisement revenue to be tallied once all is played through and Beijing sends the last of its international guestlist back to their respective places of origin. The Internet researcher appears to lay some of the blame on NBC\u2019s strict delivery deal with Microsoft and the Silverlight plugin requirement. A number of participants in a Mashable poll made known their aversion to the plugin, so eMarketer\u2019s assessment could very well be accurate.\n\nThe Wall Street Journal notes that NBCOlympics.com users\u2019 inability to view and share content across various external sites would limit the audience NBC might otherwise have attained. In fact, this clash of interests among NBC and Web users proved to be a notable issue, particularly in the area of YouTube, where a race to take down footage of Olympic games before they were broadcast in delayed-release on NBC stations drew the attention of the blogosphere as well as the mainstream press.\nA sports advertising benchmark cited by the WSJ for the world of Web-streaming video was CBS\u2019s ability to garner some $23 million in total revenue throughout the three-week-long NCAA March Madness college basketball tournament. Do watch for the key words \u201Ctotal revenue,\u201D however. The presentation of in-video advertisements is only one part of the picture at NBCOlympics.com. (Albeit a sensibly important aspect of the entire portrait.)\nThe thing is, if CBS and NBC were to juxtapose viewerships, one would still see eMarketer\u2019s premonition as somewhat unfortunate. CBS offered a figure of 4.8 million viewers. NBC, meanwhile, claimed to have nearly as much in its opening day, with 4.2m. And just this past Wednesday it issued a figure to the tune of 6.2m unique users.\nWe\u2019ll certainly have to wait until events complete wrap up to offer a definitive take on the effect NBC Olympics has had. While I have voiced some negatives about NBC\u2019s online delivery of events, I think my initial impression - that the deal will be seen as an aid for the company - will be realized in the weeks ahead. Though maybe just barely."^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2008/08/23/nbcolympics-videoads/>