NBC said that through Tuesday, its Olympics coverage had generated 883 million minutes of live streaming, more than the 818 million for the entire 2012 Olympics.
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On NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, more than 1.3 million unique users streamed the women’s gymnastics team victory Tuesday afternoon, ranking as NBC Olympics’ best-ever Summer Games stream. Viewership of the opening night was down 35% from the record-setting audience for London’s opening ceremony in 2012, which attracted 40.7 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
In the US, NBC averaged an 11.4 for its prime-time broadcast on Saturday, down almost 28 per cent from London 2012’s 15.8 and a 20-year low for the Olympic games. It is also the first time the broadcast network coverage, including primetime, has been streamed simultaneously on digital platforms.
Finally, regardless of how a rating compares to London or previous Games, 36.1 million viewers is huge for a Tuesday night in August.
This total broadcast, cable, and digital viewing number comes from NBC’s new Total Audience Delivery (TAD) measure, which Alan Wurtzel, president of research and media development for NBCUniversal, says “harmonizes” all viewership under average minute ratings.
NBC continues to crush all other broadcast network programming, as is customary for the Olympics during TV’s August dog days. “Every competition can be watched by every person in America as it happens”.
With so much to watch on TV, it can be hard to plan ahead.
NBC says the comparison is valid because even though the cable viewers weren’t watching the same thing as people tuned in to NBC, they were still watching the Olympics. CBS (0.6/2), Fox (0.3/1), and the CW (0.3/1) aired reruns.
The TNT crime drama “Rizzoli & Isles” was the most-watched cable program, averaging 4.09 million viewers, 25th overall. Telemundo was second, averaging 1.42 million, followed by UniMas, which averaged 490,000, Estrella TV, which averaged 170,000, Azteca America, which averaged 90,000, and MundoMax, which averaged 60,000.
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The “CBS Evening News” was third, as it has been throughout Scott Pelley’s more than five years as anchor, averaging 6.26 million viewers.
