The Outrageous Cost of Broadcasting the Winter Olympics

NBC paid $775 million to secure the U.S. broadcasting rights for the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics, which begin Feb. 7. The TV network and its affiliates have scheduled 539 hours of coverage, and NBCOlympics.com will live stream more than 1,000 hours of the Winter Games.

While this year's fees are quite an increase from the $91.5 million ABC paid for the Sarajevo Winter Olympics in 1984, NBC actually paid even more — $820 million — to broadcast the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver. NBC lost $223 million on the Vancouver Olympics, but the company's ad revenue this year is already snowballing.