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    NBC’s Lazarus Says Olympics Are Big Hit On Ad, Audience, Streaming Fronts

    By SHOOTUpdated:No Comments2959 Views
    United States' Michael Phelps celebrates winning the gold medal in the men's 200-meter individual medley during the swimming competitions at the 2016 Summer Olympics, Thursday, Aug. 11, 2016, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. (AP Photo/Lee Jin-man)

    By David Bauder, Television Writer

    NEW YORK (AP) --

    The chief of NBC Sports said Thursday the Rio Games are a huge hit and that he doesn't anticipate having to make concessions to advertisers.

    While NBC's prime-time viewership for the Rio games hasn't reached the levels of London 2012, the dip has been offset by increases in people streaming content to their mobile devices or watching on cable networks like Bravo and NBCSN, said Mark Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Sports Group. He expects there to be more streamed content from Rio than for all of the previous Olympics combined.

    "The Olympics are dominating the media landscape," Lazarus said.

    Despite social media complaints about the number of commercials for the opening ceremony, Lazarus said there were actually fewer commercials shown that night than for the London festivities. NBC did front-load many of the commercials early in the broadcast in more frequent breaks.

    After a disastrous start for the opening ceremony and first night of competition, NBC viewership picked up with the success of the U.S. swimmers and gymnasts.

    Often a failure to live up to promised viewing levels results in "make-goods," or advertisers being offered free time. But Lazarus said advertisers will leave the game getting what they paid for, and that NBC has sold an additional $30 million in advertising time since the games started. Before the start, NBC said it had sold $1.2 billion in advertising time.

    Viewership has met NBC's expectations, "it's just the mix is a little different," he said.

    "Rio 2016 is a huge hit," Lazarus said. "We are aggregating audiences at a scale that no one has ever seen before."

    Category:News
    Tags:NBCOlympics



    Does “Hundreds of Beavers” Reflect A New Path Forward In Cinema?

    Monday, November 25, 2024

    Hard as it may be to believe, changing the future of cinema was not on Mike Cheslik's mind when he was making "Hundreds of Beavers." Cheslik was in the Northwoods of Wisconsin with a crew of four, sometimes six, standing in snow and making his friend, Ryland Tews, fall down funny.

    "When we were shooting, I kept thinking: It would be so stupid if this got mythologized," says Cheslik.

    And yet, "Hundreds of Beavers" has accrued the stuff of, if not quite myth, then certainly lo-fi legend. Cheslik's film, made for just $150,000 and self-distributed in theaters, has managed to gnaw its way into a movie culture largely dominated by big-budget sequels.

    "Hundreds of Beavers" is a wordless black-and-white bonanza of slapstick antics about a stranded 19th century applejack salesman (Tews) at war with a bevy of beavers, all of whom are played by actors in mascot costumes.

    No one would call "Hundreds of Beavers" expensive looking, but it's far more inventive than much of what Hollywood produces. With some 1,500 effects shots Cheslik slaved over on his home computer, he crafted something like the human version of Donald Duck's snowball fight, and a low-budget heir to the waning tradition of Buster Keaton and "Naked Gun."

    At a time when independent filmmaking is more challenged than ever, "Hundreds of Beavers" has, maybe, suggested a new path forward, albeit a particularly beaver-festooned path.

    After no major distributor stepped forward, the filmmakers opted to launch the movie themselves, beginning with carnivalesque roadshow screenings. Since opening in January, "Hundreds of Beavers" has played in at least one theater every week of the year, though never more than 33 at once. (Blockbusters typically play in around 4,000 locations.)... Read More

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