NBCUniversal, fresh off a lucrative Olympics and Paralympics round in Paris, is restructuring its sports ad sales team and bidding farewell to the exec who headed up ad sales for the games.
Dan Lovinger, who had been president of Olympic and Paralympic sales, will leave the company, after NBCU has opted to combine its entire sports ad sales operations in an attempt to create a unified strategy for sales across all of its sports franchises.
Peter Lazarus, meanwhile, has been selected to head up the new combined division as executive vice president, according to advertising sales president Alison Levin.
The new combined vision hopes to better serve advertisers looking to reach sports audiences across multiple platforms. In an era of cord-cutting and delayed viewing, live sports has continued to be a bright spot for both legacy and streaming platforms, so it’s not surprising there is an interest to capitalize on its ad sales.
While at NBCU, Lovinger lead sales efforts for the 2024 Summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris, including implementing programmatic buying for streaming ads.
Before the games started, the division stressed that it was eager to help customize solutions to meet marketing goals.
Looking ahead, NBC has another round of Olympics in 2026, plus will return to airing NBA games next season, offering expanded ad inventory. NBCU is likely to also continue to push viewers to its streamer Peacock for sporting events, with more telecasts being sent to streaming exclusively with extensive support from advertising.