NBC Universal says it expects to lose money televising the Winter Olympics from Vancouver next month.

NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol said that while advertising sales were soft for much of last year, they have picked up as the Olympics drew near. The loss comes primarily due to the stiff rights fee NBC paid to broadcast the games, he said.

NBC paid $820 million for the rights to televise the Winter Games. That compares to the $613 million paid for the rights to televise the Olympics in Turin, Italy, in 2006.

Ebersol said it will be the first time NBC has lost money on the games since he began producing the telecasts from Barcelona in 1992.

The head of NBC's parent company, General Electric's Jeffrey Immelt, told investors recently that he expected NBC would lose "a couple hundred million bucks" on the games.

NBC won't cut back on its coverage plans due to the financial problems, the network said.

ELSEWHERE

Women's skiing: Lindsey Vonn won a women's World Cup super-G yesterday at Haus Im Ennstal, Austria, becoming the first American to earn a victory on three straight days and the first women to do so since 1997.

Vonn went down the Krummholz course in 1 minute, 26.69 seconds to beat Anja Paerson of Sweden by 0.53 seconds.

The last female skier to win on three consecutive days was Germany's Katja Seizinger in 1997 at Lake Louise, Alberta.

Men's skiing: France's Julien Lizeroux has won a World Cup slalom on the Kuonisbaergli course at Adelboden, Switzerland, and Bode Miller was the top American in 14th.

Lizeroux had a combined time of 1 minute, 51.88 seconds yesterday, moving up from 12th place after the first run.

Austria's Marcel Hirscher was second, while Miller trailed Lizeroux by 2.38 seconds.