Strong Interest in Summer Olympics Spurs Vibrant Ad Sales

The Summer Olympics in Beijing are more than nine months way - they start 8-8-08 - but interest is running high for ad space and time on Chinese television.

China Central TV (CCTV) drew $10.7 billion in 2008 primetime ad bids at its yearly auction Sunday, up 20 percent from this year, due largely to "strong interest in reaching" viewers of the 2008 Summer Olympics, according to the Hollywood Reporter

While a majority of the 2008 ad time was already allocated to Olympic sponsors, non-sponsors "vied for remaining slots, including special packages that featured ads in state run newspapers, online and via mobile phone text messages."

"We are very confident about the Chinese market, and we think that buying ad time in CCTV is in line with our company's market strategy of increasing investment in China," Li Feng of Johnson & Johnson Shanghai told CCTV.

Photo of the National Olympic Stadium in Beijing, also known as
the Bird's Nest, by REUTERS/Jason Lee/Landov

Meanwhile, Nike spent $9.7 million for a package of at least 130 ads during event finals, but it "didn't try to snap up a wide number of spots to counter" adidas, an official Games sponsor.

Media buyers told the Wall Street Journal that only about 12 of the more than 60 official sponsors "participated in CCTV's bidding process for the top ads on CCTV's prime channel"

In the U.S. ad market, NBC charged as much as $700,000 for a 30-second spot on prime-time events during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, which drew the worst ratings in the history of the Winter Games.

NBC is reportedly charging about $800,000 for the Beijing Games, which is plenty for telecasts that often will be showing events on 12-hour time delays to U.S. audiences.