NBC Gets Best Olympic Stream Figure Yet With U.S.-Czech Republic Hockey Quarterfinal

NBC Sports Live Extra’s live stream of the U.S.-Czech Republic men’s hockey quarterfinal game yesterday drew 798,337 unique users, marking an Olympic record and ranking second all-time among NBC Sports’ event streams. The all-time record still belongs to the Giants-Patriots Super Bowl XLVI stream in ’12, which drew 2.1 million uniques. The previous Olympic record was 682,806 uniques for the U.S.-Japan women’s soccer Gold Medal match during the ’12 London Games. For a comparison to streams on ESPN3, the U.S.-Czech Republic match would rank second all-time, behind 865,729 uniques for the U.S.-Algeria pool play match from the '10 FIFA World Cup. ESPN3's second-best event was 772,788 uniques for the Florida State-Auburn BCS National Championship last month.

TUESDAY'S GONE: NBC finished with an 11.2 rating and 18.9 million viewers for Tuesday night’s coverage from Sochi, marking the lowest-rated second Tuesday in at least the last 20 years. Tuesday night’s coverage featured Gold Medal finals for women’s giant slalom, men’s halfpipe skiing, men’s snowboard cross and women’s short-track speedskating. Also featured was the women’s bobsled competition. The comparable night during both the ’10 Vancouver and ’06 Turin Games featured the ladies’ figure skating short program. That event aired last night on NBC. The lower rating also brings the Sochi average closer to Turin. NBC is averaging a 13.0 rating through 12 nights, up 4% from Turin, but down 8% from Vancouver (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor).

COSTAS' MINIMALIST PERIOD: In N.Y., Richard Sandomir writes Bob Costas' "longevity at the Olympic anchor desk" for NBC has led to the idea that he is "highly visible each night." However, it "turns out he’s not on much." After missing six nights with an eye infection, Costas was "a visible presence for a mere 5 minutes 28 seconds on Monday and for 10:17 on Tuesday, nearly half of it an interview" with figure skating analysts Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir. Costas, who has "no fixed length of on-screen time ... serves as traffic cop and institutional memory" as host. With the exception of interviews, much of what he does is "in modest bits -- 13 seconds here, 49 seconds there, a minute now and then." Depending on the sports that "fit into the nightly jigsaw puzzle, Costas might disappear from the air for long stretches." He said, "I don’t mind when I’m not on. I will do as much or as little as you need me to do. If you need to do five minutes and that gets it done, that’s fine" (N.Y. TIMES, 2/20).

THE EYES HAVE IT: CSNBayArea.com's Ray Ratto said the biggest story of the Sochi Games has been Costas' eyes, to which CSN Bay Area's Jim Kozimor said, "That's a big story, there's no question." Ratto: "It became a big story, and a silly one. Part of it is because the rest of these Olympics have not had that one genuinely galvanic moment that people are going to take away from this and say, 'This defined these Olympic Games.' ... Maybe something will happen in the last three days, but I'm not seeing that." KGMZ-FM's Guy Haberman agreed the big story has been Costas' "red eyeballs, unfortunately." Kozimor: "What does that say about the Olympics if we're talking about Bob Costas' runny eyes?" ("Yahoo Sports Talk Live," CSN Bay Area, 2/19).

HUGHES THE BOSS: The AP's David Bauder notes Gold Medal-winning U.S. figure skater Sarah Hughes teams with broadcaster Russ Thaler for NBC's "Olympic Ice," an "hour-long television-style online daily show designed to feed interest in skating, generally the most popular Winter Olympic sport." Hughes "works out of the NBC Sports Group facility in Connecticut." She "communicates with fans via social media during NBC's prime-time coverage of figure skating, and analyzes performances during 'Olympic Ice.'" The "quick-moving" show on Tuesday showed "social media pictures and messages from and about skating personalities, had Hughes dissect the performance of American gold medal ice dancers Meryl Davis and Charlie White, and previewed Wednesday's women's figure skating." Hughes also "conducted a Skype interview" with former Canadian ice dancer Shae-Lynn Bourne. NBC Olympic Producer Rob Dustin said that Hughes in her analysis "tries to take a broader look in speaking about how the music and costumes play into the performances" (AP, 2/19).

BRIGHTER "TODAY": USA TODAY's Robert Bianco writes the format for NBC's "Today" show during the Sochi Games "may be far from new," but it has "improved." The show offers "the same fun and Games celebratory approach NBC has taken for decades: Praise the medal winners, sample the local foods, and, heaven preserve us, put on goofy clothes and try out some Olympic events." If viewers are "going to make it through one of these Olympian broadcasts, you will need a tolerance for silliness and stunts." However, co-hosts Matt Lauer, Savannah Guthrie, Al Roker and Natalie Morales "are leading the best 'Today' Olympics stint" since the '06 Turin Games. The "best news of all concerns Olympian news." The show has been "freed, perhaps, by NBC's overall 'live' take on the Sochi Games" and now "reports that morning's results rather than pretending the events have not yet happened." For example, the show opened yesterday with the news U.S. skier Ted Ligety had won the Gold Medal in the men's giant slalom (USA TODAY, 2/20).