Paul Oberjuerge: NBC Speaks

PROFITABILITY AND MAKE GOODS:
"We are sitting on a mountain of more than $900 million in cash between the network, cable and our owned stations for these Games, and I can promise you it's safe. At this point we are not even discussing make-goods and it's the belief of the business side of the company that we won't need to."

$50-75 MILLION PROFIT:
"We're profitable. We see on these Games a profit between $50 and $75 million with the number being closer to $75 million."

RATINGS IN CONTEXT:
"Are the Olympics off a bit, yeah. But they are not off one iota from all the other major sports events and certainly not from the major glamour events like the Oscars and Grammys."
"You can't compare these Games to anything other than Nagano and we're about 20-25% off of Nagano. But if you do the comparison between 1998 and 2005, the NBA Finals are off 56% since 1998 (18.7 vs. 8.2), the World Series is off 21% (14.1 vs. 11.1), Monday Night Football is off 22% (14.1 vs. 11.1). The Academy Awards are off 27% (34.9 vs. 25.4), the Grammys are off 32% (17.0 vs. 11.6). And major season finales, Seinfeld went off the air in 1998 and he did a 41 rating, when Raymond went off the air last spring it did a 20 rating. That's off 51%.

WINNING WEEKS:
"It's a really competitive business, it's about winning. NBC has not won a week since the Athens Games (Aug. 2004). We've won the first two weeks of the Olympics, we feel certain we will win the third week. Of nine nights of the Olympics so far, we've won seven of them in households and viewers and in sports that's what we use as a measurement and that's how we sold it."

ON COMPETITION:
"Other than those Games in 1968 and 1972, the Winter Olympics sitting in February, in the middle of sweeps, have never really faced any competition. This time, uniquely, our competitors have very, very, very strong programming. The Olympics is the only thing that I can think of in the world that wins basically every night of the week, still."

EVOLUTION OF NBCU's OLYMPIC STRATEGY:
"We're evolving our strategy every year. This is the first time that we will make a profit on our Internet operation, NBCOlympics.com. It looks at this point like we'll make $5-6 million in pure profit."

"The Olympics have this amazing power because it's not just what it does on network television, it's now a big thriving business on the cable side. Our Internet business is exploding - we've already reached in the first eight days of these Olympics the total number of people that we reached during the Games in Salt Lake City."

"The real issue though to this point, the money that pays for the Olympics, for our rights, is still largely money coming from television advertising. As soon as we see significant money start to come in in fields like the Internet and wireless we'll adjust our policies even more."

"I do see a day, certainly by the end of our current connection with the IOC with the deals we have going forward, in London (Olympics in 2012), that we will see a few more things move over and be seen as they happen on the Internet."