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NBC Heads Into Weekend Looking To Stay Ahead Of Turin Viewership

NBC’s total audience delivery through 14 nights of the Pyeongchang Games is 20.8 million viewers, just 1% above the broadcast-only figure of 20.7 million viewers at the same point of the Turin Games in ’06 (13 nights). NBC’s combined figure across broadcast, cable and streaming in ’18 is down 8% from the first 14 nights of Sochi four years ago. Excluding cable and streaming, NBC is averaging 18.5 million viewers for the Pyeongchang Games to date. For Wednesday night’s primetime coverage, NBC Sports had a TAD of 16.4 million viewers, with NBC accounting for 16.2 million of those viewers. NBCSN averaged 2.1 million viewers for primetime, while NBC Digital had an average minute audience of 164,000 viewers. The streaming audience was NBC’s second-lowest figure of the Pyeongchang Games. Even the TAD figure was well below the 20.2 million viewers on the same night four years ago. Linear viewership on NBC and NBCSN on Wednesday peaked from 10:00-10:15pm ET with 17.9 million viewers (women’s alpine skiing). While down from the same night in Sochi, NBC continued to rack up another easy primetime win over the competition of scripted and reality programming. Meanwhile, Salt Lake City returned to the top of U.S. markets for NBC’s Wednesday night coverage, drawing an 18.8 local rating. Denver and Minneapolis-St. Paul tied for second at a 17.6 rating (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). Olympic fatigue "may be setting in" with U.S. viewers (AP, 2/23). 

WINTER OLYMPICS PRIMETIME VIEWERSHIP ON NBC
NIGHT
DAY
TURIN ('06)
VANCOUVER ('10)
SOCHI ('14)
PYEONGCHANG ('18)
TAD* ('18)
1
Thurs.
n/a
n/a
20,016
15,995
17,249
Opening
Ceremony**
Fri.
22,200
32,641
31,690
27,837
28,286
3
Sat.
23,239
26,189
25,115
21,394
24,159
4
Sun.
23,244
26,372
26,323
22,676
26,201
5
Mon.
21,069
25,224
22,395
20,295
22,341
6
Tue.
18,405
20,330
23,722
20,500
22,600
7
Wed.
17,867
29,416
20,809
17,042
19,157
8
Thurs.
19,378
24,782
22,944
16,196
19,185
9
Fri.
18,928
23,304
19,109
16,579
19,131
10
Sat.
19,673
26,668
17,097
14,520
16,141
11
Sun.
19,238
23,294
21,270
16,375
18,259
12
Mon.
22,482
20,926
23,546
16,357
18,659
13
Tue.
25,079
21,279
18,934
17,516
20,292
14
Wed.
16,007
19,808
20,187
14,132
16,435
AVG.
20,660
24,851
22,549
18,534
20,800
NOTES: * = TAD number includes broadcast, cable and digital viewing in primetime. ** = Pyeongchang was first time Opening Ceremony was streamed live (hours before NBC telecast).
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NBC Primetime Olympic Audience

SURVEY SAYS: A Seton Hall Sports Poll conducted this week shows 17% of people said streaming is how they mostly watched the Games, while 54% cited NBC's primetime coverage. Of those polled, 12% named "other TV networks" as their most preferred option. Meanwhile, 66% said that it did not matter whether they were viewing an event live or delayed, and 66% also said that NBC has done a good job of generating interest in the Games. The poll was conducted by phone to 775 adults on landlines and cellphones across the country (Seton Hall Sports Poll).

EVERYTHING'S BIGGER: In Houston, David Barron notes Austin is likely to "emerge as the Winter Olympic viewing capital of the South." Through Wednesday's telecast, Austin was "ranked 10th among the 56 markets for prime-time ratings" on NBC and NBCSN, the "only southern city in a top-10 list dominated" by western cities. Austin ranked fourth in primetime for the '16 Rio Games, which "reflects the usual success of Texas athletes in summertime sports" (HOUSTON CHRONICLE, 2/23).

GOOD CHOICE: The AP's David Bauder writes it was a "smart move by NBCSN" to rebroadcast the women's hockey Gold Medal game late Thursday afternoon. The shootout win by the U.S. over Canada was an "instant classic, and deserves as many airings as possible." NBC’s Kenny Albert, A.J. Mleczko and Pierre McGuire were "sharp and low-key, recognizing the game needed no hype" (AP, 2/23).

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