Comcast’s $4.4B Olympian bid a bold online bet

LOS ANGELES — NBC lost more than $200 million the last time it showed the Winter Olympics, and it’s bracing for similar losses in London next year.

So, plenty of people scoffed when the network bid $4.4 billion — nearly a billion more than runner-up Fox — for the U.S. rights to carry the four games through 2020.

Yet the price may prove right.

The growth of Internet video and opportunities under NBC’s new owner, Comcast Corp., should help cut losses significantly and perhaps make the Olympics profitable after the London Games. There’s also an intangible promotional benefit to NBC.

Consider this: Even at a loss, the Olympics generate huge audiences. About 185 million people saw some of the Olympics in Vancouver last year. The struggling broadcaster can promote new shows to those viewers as it tries to dig out of fourth place.

NBC didn’t pay all that much for the Olympics, considering that TV rights fees for other major sports such as Pac-12 college basketball have been doubling or tripling. For the 2014 and 2016 games, it’s paying about the same as it has been. For the final two games in the deal, NBC is paying just 19 percent more.

Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne called NBC’s deal an “Olympic win at the right price.”