NBCUniversal, the US media giant, has sold out its entire advertising inventory for its multi-platform coverage of the 2026 Winter Olympic Games.
This milestone has been unveiled by NBCU a month before the games are set to take place in the Milan-Cortina region of northern Italy between February 6 and 22.
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As part of the announcement, NBCU confirmed that it had set a new record for revenue from advertising slots across its coverage of the Winter Games.
The media heavyweight said that over 100 new brands have signed up as advertisers, and that it has secured its highest revenues for both linear and digital ad slots in Winter Olympics history.
NBCU is arguably the International Olympic Committee's foremost broadcast partner, and holds Olympics rights through a deal stretching between 2022 and 2032 (covering both the summer and winter games that is worth $7.65 billion overall.
NBCU has also stated that, in terms of the prominence given to coverage of the Olympics on its Peacock streaming platform, over 85% of advertising brands are investing in its digital coverage.
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By GlobalDataOther notable figures include close to 60 advertisers investing in what NBCU is calling 'unique marketing elements', an increase of 174% from the equivalent number during the previous Winter Olympics, held in Beijing four years ago.
Mark Marshall, chair of global advertising and partnerships at NBCU, has commented: "Our partners have not only seen the power of the NBC Sports portfolio, but also the incredible results our robust sports programming delivers, which is why our company now sits in its strongest position ever for a Winter Games and is kicking off 2026 officially sold out of all our 'Legendary February' programming.”
The record ad sales revenue for NBCU's coverage of the Summer Olympics was set at the Paris 2024 Games – over $1.25 billion was generated through advertising slots during its coverage of that event.
Peter Lazarus, NBC Sports and Olympics' executive vice president of advertising and partnerships, added: "For the first time in our company’s history, we have seen such unprecedented demand that we are officially sold out of our inventory this far in advance of a Games. We are excited to once again deliver fans a world-class viewing experience, while providing brands the powerful halo effect the Olympics has to offer.”
In terms of NBCU advertising sales for upcoming events, the media giant sold out its inventory for domestic coverage of American football's upcoming 2026 Super Bowl back in early September.
NBCU is set to air Super Bowl LX, being staged at California’s Levi’s Stadium on February 8, across its linear NBC, streaming platform Peacock, and Spanish-language channel Telemundo.
NBCU is serving as the exclusive home to this year’s Super Bowl as part of a multi-year, multi-broadcaster deal that sees domestic rights for the showpiece rotate between US media giants Fox, NBCUniversal-owned NBC, Disney's ABC and ESPN, and the CBS network owned by Paramount.
Ad slots on NBCU for the NBA All-Star Game basketball event – to be held on February 15 – have also sold out, meanwhile.
Earlier this month, NBCU completed the spin-off of the Versant cable-TV operation, which has now begun trading on the Nasdaq stock market.
