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Companies with billions of dollars tied up in the Olympics are now rushing to put backup plans in place after officials in Japan postponed the games.

More than $10 billion in advertising arrangements, sponsorship deals and promotional events were linked to the summer games, which had been scheduled for July, according to the market intelligence service Sportcal. Companies often create elaborate campaigns around the Olympics, the most-watched sporting event in the world, recruiting athletes to star in Olympics-themed commercials and scheduling products to debut in promotional tie-ins.

Companies such as Coca-Cola, Airbnb, General Electric, Procter Gamble and Visa had signed on as sponsors for the 2020 games.

But on Tuesday, the International Olympic Committee and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan said that the games would be delayed, possibly for a full year.

Now, “commercial plans four years in the making are being hastily rewritten around the world,” said Conrad Wiacek, head of analysis and consulting for Sportcal, in a statement.

NBCUniversal, the main American broadcaster of the Summer Games since 1988 and the Winter Games since 2002, had already sold more than $1.25 billion in advertising commitments for 7,000 hours of planned broadcast, streaming and social media content. The media giant was set to send more than 2,000 people to Japan for the games.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/03/24/business/coronavirus-stock-market-live-tracker.html