The U.S. Olympic Committee has teamed with NBC to sign a sponsorship deal with TD Ameritrade that pairs the use of the Olympic rings with a prearranged deal for commercial time during London 2012 broadcasts.
The agreement, announced Thursday, is the first the USOC has brokered with an online trading company and is also the first that brings in NBC as part of a USOC sponsorship deal.
Normally, companies that sign with the USOC negotiate separately with NBC for Olympic media buys. But as a sign of the improving relationship between the USOC and its key network partner, the two sat together at the negotiating table for this deal.
NBC will televise next year's Olympics, with the bidding for 2014 and 2016 expected to begin later this year.
The relationship between the network and the USOC became strained when the USOC made plans to start its own Olympic network. But those plans were subsequently scrapped, which led to an improved relationship between the two. Last year at the annual USOC Olympic Assembly, NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol gave the keynote speech - a glowing oratory about USOC leaders Scott Blackmun and Larry Probst that signaled the tough times between the two organizations had been smoothed over.
The deal with TD Ameritrade adds another sponsorship ''category'' to the USOC's portfolio and continues a slow, steady climb for the marketing department, which lost a number of key sponsors after the 2008 Olympics.
