NBC's Olympics coverage might show profit after all

You know that NBC loses millions upon millions covering the Olympics, right?

Maybe not this year.

NBC Sports Group Chairman Mark Lazarus told reporters Thursday morning that the network’s coverage might actually show a profit. Previously, the company estimated it would lose around $200 million.

“With ratings and sales increases, we’ve made significant incremental money and we will now be around break even — no qualifiers,” Lazarus said. “It’s a small chance that we can make a little bit of money. We’ll know over the next couple weeks.”

In 2010, NBC lost more than $200 million on the Winter Olympics. NBC’s Summer Olympics coverage has posted significant ratings gains since the Opening Ceremony aired last week. Though many of us have criticisms of NBC’s tape-delay strategy (and we’ll have a post with Lazarus addressing that in a few minutes), the company avoiding a huge hit is good news: We all want to continue having massive comprehensive Olympics coverage on a ton of platforms, regardless of the broadcast network.