Factors cited by NBC for the lower broadcast viewership is that these are the first Summer Olympics in US television history with broadcast network coverage, including prime time, being streamed simultaneously on digital platforms and cable coverage opposite the prime-time broadcast coverage.
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Three so far A Chinese swimmer, a Polish weight lifter and a Bulgarian steeplechaser were expelled or suspended from the Olympics for doping, the first athletes sanctioned after failing drug tests at the 2016 games. South Korean Inbee Park is leading the competition at -10, followed by USA’s Stacy Lewis at -9 after today’s second round.
With blanket coverage of the Rio Games, NBC had the ratings game all to itself in prime time, scoring the top seven slots (Tuesday, Thursday, Monday, Sunday, Wednesday, Saturday and Friday) by a mile while crushing its network rivals.
NBC’s primetime overnight rating of 14.4 Wednesday night more than doubled the combined total of ABC, CBS, and Fox.
NBC averaged 28.23 million viewers for its all-Olympics prime-time schedule between August 8 and Sunday, according to live-plus-same-day figures released by Nielsen today. The “CBS Evening News” was third, as it has been throughout Scott Pelley’s more than five years as anchor, averaging 6.17 million viewers.
NBC Olympics’ Total Audience Delivery measures broader Rio Olympics consumption by calculating average minute viewing across broadcast, cable, and digital.
Through Monday, NBC Olympics’ live streaming for Rio 2016 has reached 2 billion live streaming minutes for the first time in history.
A division of NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal’s Olympic Games coverage.
The IOC expects that, by the end of the Olympics, about half the world’s population will have watched the Games, with about the same number of people watching the opening ceremony as in 2012, according to early estimates by broadcast executive Timo Lumme.
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These press releases appear as sent to Around the Rings and are not edited for spelling, grammar or punctuation.
