As the opening ceremony for the 2024 Paris Olympics in July draws near, Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) is seeing an uptick in interest from advertisers. The media conglomerate’s NBC Universal (NBCU) television network announced that it had sold $1.2 billion in advertising for the Paris Games, and is likely to set a new Olympics sales record.
Comcast has paid $7.65 billion to extend its broadcast rights for the Olympics through 2032, and this marks the largest deal in the world for the Olympics.
A Reuters report cited Dan Lovinger, president of Olympic and Paralympic sales at NBCU as saying that this year’s Olympics are seeing an 18% rise in ad spending from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) sponsors as compared to the previous 2021 Olympics held in Tokyo.
This is good news for Comcast, which had seen IOC sponsors reducing their ad spend for the games over the past few years.
Is Comcast a Buy, Sell, or Hold?
Analysts are cautiously optimistic about CMCSA stock, with a Moderate Buy consensus rating based on nine Buys and seven Holds. Year-to-date, Comcast has declined by more than 7%, and the average CMCSA price target of $51.21 implies an upside potential of 27.5% from current levels.
