As such, NBC Olympics will begin Total Audience Delivery reports later this week measuring broader consumption.
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In the Pacific time zone, NBC coverage will start at 7:30 p.m. on all the network’s platforms – television, NBColympics.com, and the NBC Sports mobile app.
After the first two days, NBC’s average primetime viewership (24.4 million viewers) and household rating (13.0) had respective 294 percent and 210 percent advantages over the other broadcast networks combined – the second-largest Olympics advantage on record (behind only the London Olympics).
“It’s simply breathtaking to consider that a mere 20 years ago in Atlanta, we telecast about 170 hours and now we’re creeping up on 7,000”, Bell said, calling Rio “arguably the most telegenic (city) to have ever hosted an Olympics”. However, some of you might not know what channel NBC Sports Network is on.
“It’s quite an operation there”, said Bell, noting that the London Games’ off-site commentators were based at the 30 Rock site in Manhattan. Rugby and equestrian venues have been free from fans, and a Brazil volleyball match on the world-famous Copacabana Beach had lots of empty seats yesterday. What seems more likely is that, much as ratings for everything in TV have taken a plunge over the past half-decade, the Olympics are proving they’re not immune from the erosion virus. However, Olympic fare was also shown on NBCSN and Bravo in prime-time this year.
And NBC will continue to try to connect viewers with athletes via feature reports. The once-every-four-years nature of the Summer Olympics and the immediacy of the competition makes the games the exact kind of offering created to counter the rising threat of streaming.
As for the many live streams available during the day, Bell said the hitch for viewers of the London Olympics was getting access when they needed to authenticate their cable accounts online.
“The American viewers want to be their own programmers”, he said.
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8-14, at 8 p.m. on NBC Week 1 of the Rio Games is underway, and for those who can’t follow along live on NBC’s various cable channels and streaming services, these nightly primetime broadcasts will catch you up on each day’s events.
