10 - NBC GETS A LIFT TICKET FROM THE OLYMPICS

The Torino Winter Olympics from Turin, Italy -- that's the way many in the news media are referring to it -- open today with more than 190 million viewers expected to tune in at one time or another. However, in an interview with the New York Daily News, NBC Universal TV Group President Randy Falco said that he expected ratings to be about 25 percent below those for 2002 in Salt Lake City. Advertisers are paing between $500,000 and $700,000 per 30-second spot, the newspaper said, amounting to a total take of about $930 million -- 20 percent above 2002's. NBC and its sibling cable networks together will aire 418 hours of programming -- up from 375.5 in 2002. For the first time, a high-definition signal will be simulcast with the standard signal, providing owners of HDTV sets more Olympics coverage than ever before.

10/02/2006