CABLEFAX DAILY notes the Rio Games makes it a "bit hard for year-over-year ad spend comparisons for broadcast, but it's a different story for cable." According to Standard Media Index figures, cable "lost only 1 percentage point" compared to August '16, compared to broadcast's 54% YOY loss. SMI reports 92% of all Olympic spend "went to broadcast." The firm said that cable's August '17 stats were helped by a 27% YOY "spending boost" at ESPN attributed to preseason NFL games, more U.S. Open taking place in August than in '16 and higher unit rates around MLB games (CABLEFAX DAILY, 9/22).
BRONZE MEDAL: In San Jose, Jon Wilner reported on Pac-12 Networks' Olympic sports ratings, noting during the Saturdays covered in the ratings window reviewed, there were "four broadcasts of Olympic sports events" on the net's national feed. The four Olympic sports events in question had a "total of 22 measured segments," and of those, 21 registered a 0.0 rating. That means that "so few people are watching, it doesn’t register with the rating service." This is the "first hard evidence of the lack of viewership for Pac-12 Olympic sports, and that is an issue worthy of discussion for this reason" (San Jose MERCURY NEWS, 9/22).
TECHNICAL ISSUES: POSTMEDIA NETWORK's John Kryk noted DAZN is "refunding Canadian NFL subscribers $20 -- the cost of one month of service -- for 'problems that have impacted' the company’s launch." Through the first two weeks of the NFL regular season, DAZN’s streaming has been "rife with a range of technical snafus" (POSTMEDIA NETWORK, 9/21).
