Like many publicly traded companies last week, General Electric released its quarterly report and showed a dip in profit ($4.31b this quarter, compared to last year's $5.56b), which was expected. But Friday's paperwork also revealed one startling discovery: The Beijing Olympics, which GE's NBC unit paid nearly $900 million for, and racked up more than $1 billion in revenue? Despite all the cheering about the additional ad dollars squeezed out of every 30-second block, the 2008 Games actually produced a loss for NBC. Or, uh, did it?

CAN SOMEBODY PLEASE EXPLAIN THIS TO US, because reporters reading and writing about the financial reports cannot. Was the 3,600 hours of Beijing coverage a smart fiscal move for NBC? Or, you know, not?

Media trade publication MediaPost says (emphasis ours) "that despite a loss for the Olympics, NBC Universal profits for the third quarter still climbed into double digits for the first time in three years. [...] Over the past three months–starting in July and covering the Beijing Games in August and NBC premiere week in September–NBCU's performance accounted for an 8% revenue gain to $4.1 billion compared to a year ago. That figure comes after the $1 billion in Olympic revenues is stripped out. NBCU did not detail the quarter's loss on the Games, but said that even with the hit, profit was up 10% to $645 million. That topped the 9% profit hike in the quarter a year ago."

Okay, so NBC lost money on the Olympics then, right?

But then wire services like AFP say: "NBC Universal saw revenues grow 35 percent and operating profits up 10 percent to 645 million dollars, helped by the Summer Olympics broadcasts by the NBC network." And The Motley Fool says: "NBC Universal also benefited from the Beijing Olympics, thereby chalking up 10% profit growth."

So, which is it: The Olympics boosted NBC's profits, or took away from them?

Maybe this explains it all (leave it to the Canadians): "NBC Universal booked a loss on the Beijing Olympics in the third quarter, but will make a profit on the event once all is said and done, executives said Friday. The company's General Electric Co. parent said in its quarterly earnings conference call that NBC Universal generated more than $1 billion US in revenue from the Olympics in the third quarter, but wrote a loss on the event. GE executives did not disclose the size of the loss. However, a spokesman told The Hollywood Reporter that at the end of the year, the Olympics will make NBC Universal a small profit due to the way they are accounted for."

(NB: It was only back in 1996 that Dick Ebersol, then the president of NBC Sports, guaranteed a profit of $10 million on the Atlanta games, which it bid $456 million for.)