Social Media Is the Message for Olympics

A few days ago, Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Kozak estimated that the Sochi Winter Olympic Games would cost $51 billion. That's a lot of money — as the AP notes, it's way more than the $6 billion Vancouver spend on the last Winter Games in 2010.

The big story in media today involved the world of big media Social Media Editors (people whose job it is to help their respective media organizations be active and noticed on social networks like Twitter and Facebook).

Comcast CEO Brian L. Roberts said Thursday that Comcast doesn’t expect to make a giant profit from the 2016 summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro but defended its heavy spending to acquire rights to additional Olympic telecasts. “I am so glad we stomached it,” he said of Comcast’s 2011 agreement to spend $4.38 billion to acquire additional rights.

Maker's Mark found a way to turn an absolute social media disaster to an online win. Last week, the whiskey maker announced plans to cut the amount of alcohol from 45 to 42 percent, making it 84 instead of 90 proof, due to high demand and low bourbon supply. Suffice it to say that the internet wasn't pleased. It's the age of social media, so consumers were tweeting and Facebooking their complaints to anyone who would listen.

The contract wins are announced as Lord Sebastian Coe leads a trade mission of UK companies to Brazil for the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland (AP) — IOC leaders dropped wrestling from the Olympic program on Tuesday, a surprise decision that removes one of the oldest Olympic sports from the 2020 Games. The IOC executive board decided to retain modern pentathlon — the event considered most at risk — and remove wrestling instead from its list of 25 "core sports."