Olympics Closing Ceremony Tops Sochi
The 2018 Winter Olympics drew to a close in Pyeongchang, South Korea, on Sunday night, drawing a 10.0 rating in metered market households on NBC. That’s up approximately 5% from the Sochi closing ceremony, which drew a 9.5 rating. That is also an increase from the lows hit over the weekend.
Olympics Hit Back-To-Back Lows In Final Days
The closing days of the 2018 Winter Olympics saw steep declines in the Nielsen ratings. Friday night’s primetime coverage of the Games from Pyeongchang, South Korea, drew a combined 9.2 rating in metered market households on NBC and NBC Sports Network. That is down approximately 28% from the previous night’s coverage. Saturday night’s primetime coverage of the Games sank even lower, falling approximately 5% to an 8.7 household rating. It is also averaging a 1.9 and 9.4 million viewers on NBC.
Olympics Slides Week To Week On Thurs.
In metered market households, this Thursday’s coverage of the Olympics drew a combined 12.0 rating on NBC and NBC Sports Network. This Wednesday’s coverage drew an 11.1 rating, the second-worst for the 2018 Olympics thus far. So Thursday was up approximately 8% night-to-night. But last Thursday’s coverage drew a 13.0, meaning this week was down approximately 8% from last week. Univision came in second with its awards show Premio Lo Nuestro.
Winter Olympics Near Low On Second Wed.
The primetime coverage of the second Wednesday of the 2018 Olympics drew an 11.1 rating in metered market households on NBC and NBC Sports Network. That is up just 75 from the previous low set on Saturday, Feb. 17 (10.4 rating). That is also down a steep 20% from what the combined coverage drew on Tuesday, Feb. 20 (13.9 rating) and approximately 15% from the first Wednesday, Feb. 14 (13.1 rating).
Olympics Second Tues. Falls From Last Week
Primetime coverage on the second Tuesday of the 2018 Winter Olympics was something of a mixed bag in the Nielsen ratings. In metered market households, the combined coverage on NBC and NBC Sports Network drew a 13.9 rating. That is up 16% in that measure from the comparable night of the 2014 Sochi Olympics, though Sochi coverage did not air on NBC Sports Network.
WRAL Shows Olympics In Next Gen TV Format
Hundreds gathered to see the future of television in Raleigh, N.C. Monday was the first time ATSC 3.0 was used to publicly show the benefits and features of the new standard with an Olympic event. The demo also included Advanced Emergency Alerting that can show location-specific, interactive warnings.
The combined coverage on NBC and NBC Sports for the second Monday of competition drew an 12.6 rating in metered market households. That is up from the 10.4 drawn on Saturday and 11.8 on Sunday. However, the first Monday drew a combined 14.5 rating, meaning this Monday was down approximately 13% in that measure.
Winter Olympics Lose Steam Over Weekend
On Friday, NBC and NBC Sports’ combined primetime coverage averaged 13.0 rating in metered market households, matching the competition low in that measure set on Thursday night. According to total audience delivery data, 19.2 million people tuned in on NBC, NBC Sports, and on streaming platforms for the night. The second Saturday of the 2018 Olympics was not much better, with primetime coverage of the Games netting a combined 10.4 rating in metered market households, falling 20 percent from the previous low. The second Sunday improved slightly from the declines of Saturday, nabbing a combined 11.8 rating in metered market households and is currently averaging 15.7 million viewers.
While social media was around during prior Olympics, they have a much bigger presence this time around, with everything from Instagram “Stories” to auto-play videos on Twitter parlaying brand messages. The speed in which athletes break out to become stars happens more quickly now.
Olympics Hits New Low For 2nd Straight Night
Primetime coverage of the Games drew a combined 13.0 rating in metered market households on NBC and NBC Sports for Thursday night. That’s down from the 13.1 the Games drew Wednesday night, which was the lowest rating in that measure for competition from the 2018 Winter Olympics thus far. That’s also down approximately 10% from the 14.4 rating drawn by the the comparable night during the 2014 Sochi Olympics, which aired only on NBC. (AP Photo | Jae C. Hong)
Olympics Slip To Low On First Wednesday
In metered market households, Wednesday’s coverage drew a combined 13.1 rating on NBC and NBC Sports. That is the lowest rating in that measure for the official competition of the 2018 Games thus far. That is also down slightly from the 13.2 rating drawn by the comparable coverage of the Sochi Olympics in 2014, though that aired only on NBC.
Each day of the Winter Olympics, NBC reports how many viewers watched the previous night’s coverage, and analysts and television executives attempt to divine what those numbers mean. But NBC isn’t touting traditional Nielsen ratings. Instead, for primetime viewing, the network primarily cites a recently created standard of its own making called total audience delivery, or TAD. It takes the ratings from the broadcast network and cable channels like NBCSN that are showing the Olympics and combines them with viewership across various streaming platforms to produce one number.
Shaun White’s Gold Drives NBC’s Olympics
Shaun White’s gold medal win in the men’s snowboarding halfpipe event of the Olympics helped the Games set a new high in the ratings. From 10 to 10:15 p.m., which included White’s win and pairs figure skating, NBC and NBC Sports coverage of the Pyeongchang Olympics delivered a 19.6 rating in metered market households. That is the highest peak for the Games thus far. Overall,
NEW YORK (AP) — Katie Couric has apologized for saying that the Dutch are so successful in speed skating because skates have been used as a form of transportation when […]
NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said Tuesday that ratings are exceeding the guarantees that NBC gave to its advertisers which has enabled the network to sell even more commercial time. NBC said before the games it had sold $900 million worth of advertising.
WLS Mixes Up Pyeongchang With P.F. Chang’s
Through the first three days of the Winter Olympics, carmakers have been the big spenders on NBC — with traditional TV viewing down. Toyota has spent $5.12 million and Chevrolet has spent $4.4 million for Thursday through Sunday, according to iSpot.tv.
Sun. Olympics Coverage Steady With 2014
Sunday’s coverage of the Games on NBC and NBC Sports drew a combined 16.5 rating in Nielsen’s metered market households, airing partially on tape delay in primetime on the East Coast with an encore on the West Coast. That is up 5% compared to the comparable day from Sochi, which drew a 15.7. However, Sochi coverage aired only on NBC, not NBC Sports. On NBC alone, 2018’s first Olympics Sunday drew a 14.7 in metered market households.
NEW YORK (AP) — NBC has apologized to South Koreans for an on-air remark by an analyst that cited Japan as an example that has been important to the country’s […]
Olympics Catch Up To Sochi On Saturday
NBC and NBCSN’s primetime coverage of Saturday’s 2018 Pyeongcang Olympics competition delivered 23.9 million viewers, down just 4% from the first Saturday of the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
Olympics Opening Ceremony Draws 28.3M
NBC Sports estimates that 28.3 million viewers watched Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony on Friday with the streaming audience factored in. NBC said the live stream of the ceremony at 6 a.m. ET and views initiated via NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app simultaneous to the taped-delay primetime telecast added up to an average minute audience of 449,000. The linear NBC telecast from 8 p.m.-11:02 p.m. ET averaged 27.8 million viewers.
Fox News has removed an online column by EVP and executive editor John Moody following intense criticism online and from gay rights activists, who roundly attacked the piece. Moody had written on Wednesday: “Unless it’s changed overnight, the motto of the Olympics, since 1894, has been ‘Faster, Higher, Stronger.’ It appears the U.S. Olympic Committee would like to change that to ‘Darker, Gayer, Different.’ If your goal is to win medals, that won’t work.”
Winter Olympics Down From 2014
The beginning of the 2018 Winter Olympics from Pyeongchang, South Korea, handily topped the broadcast ratings on Thursday night but was down from the beginning of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Airing live on the East Coast from 8 to 11 p.m. on NBC and NBC Sports, the Olympics coverage drew a combined 11.1 rating in metered market households. That is a drop off of just 6% from the 2014 Winter Olympics, which drew an 11.8. In fairness, however, the first coverage of the 2014 Olympics was carried on NBC only.
With the Winter Olympics underway from Pyeongchang, South Korea, here’s a look at some of the various tech vendors and the equipment that’s making it possible for NBC to provide a record 2,400 hours of coverage.
NBC’s first night, before Friday’s opening ceremony, had the feel of spring training. You could see it in the team ice skating, where men took tumbles one after the other. NBC’s Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, to their credit, didn’t make excuses for anyone
FuboTV, in agreement with NBCUniversal, is offering a multi-platform content offering for NBCUniversal’s coverage of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games from PyeongChang, South Korea, beginning today and running through Sunday, […]
NBC is about to make television history when it starts broadcasting the Winter Olympics today — less than a week after airing Super Bowl LII. Never before has a U.S. broadcaster transitioned between these two huge events so quickly.
The 2018 Winter Olympics from PyeongChang, South Korea, will be under way in less than 24 hours, and, for Dave Mazza, SVP-CTO of NBC Sports Group and NBC Olympics, launch preparations have gone smoothly so far.
NBC’s morning TV franchise has become adept at leveraging the network’s coverage of the Olympic Games. Every two years viewers can count on emotional athletes and their families and friends stopping by the remote set of the program on the Olympics site to share the glory. There is more on the line than usual this year due to a wrenching change Today went through Nov. 28, when longtime co-anchor Matt Lauer was fired over his alleged sexually inappropriate behavior with an employee.
Comcast says it will make available 50 “virtual” channels for the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea — a precursor to personalized television. Each virtual channel will air only content on specific Olympic sports and athletes. The channels will be accessed through the Xfinity television remote.
For the first time, NBC will air its evening coverage live across the country, meaning the broadcast that starts at 8 p.m. on the East Coast starts at 5 p.m. out West. With a half-hour break for local news, Mike Tirico will stay on the air each evening until 2 a.m. ET, coinciding with the end of primetime out West. NBC believes the time zone difference will serve the American audience well. Since prime evening viewing time coincides with daylight hours in South Korea, it means more live events than usual when most viewers are available.
Discovery Communications wants a more complete picture of who’s tuning in to watch the Winter Olympics this month, so it’s aggregating data from linear broadcast, digital platforms and social media engagement metrics. Tying TV and digital viewing patterns together has become more of a conundrum as content consumption has shifted online and split across screens.
Super Bowl’s Over, Let’s Talk Olympics
Last month, we posted some updated guidelines about engaging in or accepting advertising or promotions that directly or indirectly allude to the Super Bowl without a license from the NFL. Now, that is behind us (for another year), it is just in time to think about these issues in the context of the Winter Olympics.