Internet advertising will attract only $70 million in ad spend related to the summer Olympics, out of a total $1.5 billion in expected expenditures for the Beijing event, according to Lehman Brothers analyst Doug Anmuth’s Internet Inside Weekly report (pdf only, not online). Most of that $70 million will go to NBC’s websites, while $30 million will be up for grabs by sites unrelated to the TV network. Other findings in Anmuth’s research note include:

-- Sports sites such as Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Sports, ESPN (NYSE: DIS), Fox Sports on MSN, and AOL (NYSE: TWX) Sports are likely to attract larger than normal audience numbers and greater usage directly related to the Olympics, whether or not they are tied to official sponsorship with NBC or the Olympic Games. While the major portals are likely to draw in the remaining Olympics ad spend, Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is not expected to see an appreciable benefit. Anmuth bases his view on comScore’s (NSDQ: SCOR) figures for the ’06 Winter Games, when sports traffic grew for ESPN (a 17 percent boost), Yahoo Sports (18 percent growth), and AOL Sports (up 44 percent). 

-- The summer is considered a particularly slow period for internet usage. The Olympics gives portals an opportunity to attract an unusual amount of fans to their other content, such as fantasy football. Anmuth believes if they can position these other channels just right, they might be able to keep their Olympics-related gains after the games are over.

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