Jan 6 (Reuters) – NBCUniversal has sold out advertising spots for the 2026 Winter Olympics in Italy a month before the start of the Games in early February, the Comcast-owned company said on Tuesday.
More than 100 new advertisers have signed on for the Milano Cortina Games, making it the biggest broadcast and digital revenue earner in Winter Olympics history and the highest grossing Winter Olympics of all time, NBCUniversal said.
The Games kick off a packed sports broadcasting schedule for NBCUniversal in February, which also includes the 60th Super Bowl and the National Basketball Association’s All‑Star weekend.
NBCUniversal said ad slots across all three events have sold out and the programming is expected to reach nearly two‑thirds of Americans over the course of the month.
“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,” said Peter Lazarus, executive vice president of NBC Sports & Olympics, Advertising and Partnerships.
Live sports have been a key draw for advertisers at a time when overall marketing budgets for media firms have been under pressure, sparking a rush in the sector for rights to big events.
The Milano Cortina Games will run from February 6 to 22, with events planned in Milan, Cortina d’Ampezzo and other venues. The opening ceremony will feature performances by artists such as Mariah Carey and Laura Pausini.
More than 85% of NBCUniversal’s Olympic brand partners are investing digitally. The adoption of streaming platform Peacock’s ad innovations has grown 31% from the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics to Milano Cortina, the company said.
In November 2025, the broadcaster launched the NBC Sports Network in a move to tap entrenched pay-TV audiences and expand its sports content distribution.
(Reporting by Anhata Rooprai in Bengaluru and Lisa Richwine in Los Angeles; Editing by Devika Syamnath)
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