Lumme is the managing director of IOC Television and Marketing Services. But this number is down significantly from the 2008 Beijing Olympics, which posted a record of more than one billion viewers.
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Viewers’ habits change during every edition of the Games, with more searching for Olympics news online or through social media, fragmenting the traditional broadcast audiences that advertisers still pay a premium for.
Worldwide Rio Olympic TV viewing is on par with the London games in 2012 – despite declines in TV viewership in the USA and in Europe.
In terms of overall coverage, International Olympic Committee says TV networks have increased TV programming 25% versus 2012 – totaling 125,000 hours. They also increased digital hours 2.5 times to 81,500 hours available, compared to London.
ABC’s “World News Tonight with David Muir” was second, averaging 7.91 million.
Although ratings have dipped in the U.S and Europe, TV ratings have climbed in other territories – specifically in South America, where the games are being held in Rio, Brazil. Globo TV, the main Brazilian rights holder, had its highest ratings since the World Cup in 2014, Lumme said.
Lumme negotiates the IOC’s long-term deals with broadcasters globally, which is the greatest source of revenue for the Games.
For the week of August 8-14, the top 10 shows, their networks and viewerships: Summer Olympic Games (Tuesday), NBC, 33.4 million; Summer Olympic Games (Thursday), NBC, 31.2 million; Summer Olympic Games (Monday), NBC, 28.9 million; Summer Olympic Games (Sunday), NBC, 26.8 million; Summer Olympic Games (Wednesday), NBC, 26.5 million; Summer Olympic Games (Saturday), NBC, 25.5 million; Summer Olympic Games (Friday), NBC, 24.0 million; “60 Minutes”, CBS, 6.0 million; “Big Brother” (Wednesday), CBS, 5.9 million; “NCIS”, CBS, 5.8 million.
Based on early estimates, the IOC says viewership this year is on par with that in 2012, when some 3.6 billion people – or around half of the world’s total population of 7 billion – caught at least 1 minute of the Olympic Games.
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Says Lzarus: “NBC’s broadcast is not the only way people are consuming the Olympics”.
