NBC Takes Fun Out of Media Buying

Anyone who has bought media knows there's always a bunch of "extras" that go along with the buy. They range from cheap pens with cheesy logos to all expenses paid, exotic travel. Those who have made media buys on NBC's Olympic broadcast are being handed $7,000 and $12,000 "thank you for over-spending millions with us" thank you packages. All well and good as these things are usually "under the table" thank yous but NBC has decided to spoil the fun and has assigned the above mentioned values to these packages thereby creating tax ramifications that could forever shut down these fringe benefits which have become a mainstay in the industry. Pretty soon a sales rep won't even be able to say thank you to the buyer for fear of passing on some taxable intellectual "property."