The IOC said that broadcasters around the world have beamed 14% "more hours of programming" from the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics compared to the Sochi 2014 Games, according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. IOC Dir of TV & Marketing Timo Lumme said that preliminary data "showed overall output from the Games in South Korea was bigger than at any previous winter Olympics with an average of 130 hours of programming per rights-holding broadcaster." Lumme added that early estimates showed 3 billion people have watched some coverage of the Olympics, which end on Sunday. In the U.S., Lumme said that NBC's coverage during prime time was "bigger than all other competitor networks combined" (REUTERS, 2/20).
ONLINE STREAMING: NET IMPERATIVE reported Winter Olympics fans spend an average of 2 hours, 24 minutes a day on social media, and one in five are "watching Facebook Live video content on a monthly basis," according to a new report. A global study of 30,755 Winter Olympics fans conducted by GlobalWebIndex identified a "huge area" of advertising opportunity around the ongoing sporting event, with 35% of consumers now watching online. Among Winter Olympic fans, YouTube (89%) holds poll position as the most visited/used platform, followed by Facebook (83%). Monthly, "almost a quarter" have watched a sports video or clip on YouTube and one in five have watched something on Facebook Live (NET IMPERATIVE, 2/20).
OPENING NUMBERS: YONHAP's Chang Dong-woo reported more than 300 million people worldwide are estimated to have watched the opening ceremony of the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics on TV, Lumme said. He added that networks in South Korea, China and Japan carrying the Games have seen "consistent increases in viewership." He noted that 10 million people in South Korea watched the opening ceremony (YONHAP, 2/20).
