NBC Is Betting $7.65 Billion That It Knows What TV Will Look Like in 2032

Fans of the Olympics are often in it for the tradition, and that includes NBC, the network that agreed on Wednesday to pay $7.65 billion for the rights to broadcast the games on television and online until 2032. The network has been accused at times of letting its Olympic spirit get in the way of its bottom line. Now it’s betting not only that it can make a good business of the games, but that it can do so while adjusting to the next 18 years of shifts in media consumption habits.

The Olympics have been a beloved moneyloser for NBC for decades. The broadcaster, owned by owned by Comcast, lost $223 million on the 2012 Summer Games in London. Yet it extended its contract the next year, paying $4.4 billion for the broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2020. Critics said NBC got fleeced. ESPN, one of the rivals outbid by NBC in 2011, released a statement at the time saying it had made a “disciplined bid,” adding that “to go any further would not have made good business sense for us.”