Olympics: Paris unveils closure plans, Games poised to break NBC ad sales record

Large areas of central Paris will be inaccessible for most people in the week prior to the Summer Olympics, with traffic only allowed to cross the Seine river at four locations, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on Tuesday.

In the week leading up to the opening ceremony, police will put in place a vast anti-terror zone along the Seine, which the Olympic athletes are set to sail down when the Games begin on July 26.

Around 20,000 homes lie inside the zone, and anyone wanting to enter it, including workers and tourists, will need to register on a government website to obtain a quick-response (QR) code.

The registration website for the QR codes will be live from May 10, Darmanin said.

"Parisians will have five ways of crossing Paris during the week of preparations for the opening ceremony, one pedestrian bridge ... and four bridges open to pedestrians and traffic," Darmanin told reporters.

The closures underline the scale of the security challenge posed by the hugely ambitious opening ceremony, which will see teams sail down a 6-kilometer stretch of the river in more than 100 boats.

Crossing the capital on the underground metro system will still be possible, but around 15 stations inside the anti-terror zone will be closed.

The high-security zone will shrink after the opening ceremony to the areas in the immediate vicinity of sports venues, which are dotted around the capital.

"It will be a magnificent moment for France and for the Olympics," Darmanin said of the opening ceremony, stressing that no country had ever organized one outside the main athletics stadium.

A total of 326,000 lucky ticket-holders are expected to witness the ceremony up close, while up to 200,000 others will watch on from homes overlooking the Seine or from residential river boats, AFP reported.

U.S. broadcaster NBCUniversal is seeing renewed interest from major corporate sponsors in the world's premier sporting event, as fans are expected to fill Olympic stadiums for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.

NBCUniversal said on Tuesday it has sold $1.2 billion in advertising for the Paris Games and is on track to achieve a new sales record for the Olympics. The company paid $7.65 billion to renew its broadcast rights deal through to 2032, the largest deal in the world for the Games.

Ad spending from International Olympic Committee (IOC) sponsors is currently up 18 percent from the previous Summer Olympics in Tokyo that took place in 2021, said Dan Lovinger, president of Olympic and Paralympic sales at NBCUniversal, in an interview.

IOC sponsors, which include major brands like Visa, Toyota, and Procter & Gamble, pay upwards of an estimated $100 million for the right to use the famous Olympic rings in their marketing materials.

The increase in ad spending can be attributed to Paris being the first Olympics to permit a large number of spectators since the pandemic, as well as a more favorable time zone for U.S. audiences after three Olympics in Asia, Lovinger said.

"Very few properties can help (brands) build reach and know exactly where their advertising is running. That is why the Olympics continues to garner support from major advertisers," he said.

As viewers, particularly young people, increasingly consume content online and through social media, NBCUniversal has taken steps to follow the trend. It announced last month that, in a Summer Olympics first, every Paris event would be available on its streaming service Peacock. Advertisers will be able to buy ads for the first time through automated technology, rather than salespeople, and NBCUniversal has also inked agreements to post clips on X and Snapchat.

(With input from agencies)