NBC's windfall on the Olympics is turning into a downfall for other TV networks.

On Thursday, CBS Corp. Chief Executive Les Moonves became the third major media company executive in three days to acknowledge that the London Olympics were sucking the oxygen out of the advertising market.

Executives at CBS, Time Warner Inc. and Discovery Communications Inc. all said this week that the so-called "scatter" market for last-minute ad buys was experiencing softness. They said advertisers were spending more of their money on commercials for the Olympics, which have been more popular than forecast.

Still, rivals expected the dollars to flow back to their networks after the Games are finished.

Moonves said the market will return to normal in September, when the fall TV season begins and CBS starts to benefit from higher commercial prices that it locked in during the bulk sales period known as the upfronts earlier this year.

"We're ready for the gun to go off in the middle of September," he said.

— Ryan Nakashima in Los Angeles — Twitter https://twitter.com/rnakashi

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EDITOR'S NOTE — "Eyes on London" shows you the Olympics through the eyes of Associated Press journalists across the 2012 Olympic city and around the world. Follow them on Twitter where available with the handles listed after each item.