NBC Olympic Opening Ceremony Ratings: Strong, But Not Enormous

[Joseph_Gallant]

It was a given that the ratings for NBC's broadcast of this year's Winter Olympics (Turin/Torino) would not be as strong as four years ago (Salt Lake City) for one simple reason: Due to the time difference, none of NBC's prime-time coverage will be live.

According to this Zap 2 it.com story, the ratings for NBC's broadcast of last night's (February 10th) Opening Ceremonies were very good, but not enormous.

The numbers were significantly down from 2002 (but then again, the 2002 Opening Ceremonies were not only broadcast live, but the Winter Games were taking place in the United States), but were still enough to dominate the night.

I think NBC may actually get very strong prime-time numbers tonight and tomorrow night (February 11th and 12th), but not because of any potential U.S. medalists. If NBC scores very big numbers for tonight's and tomorrow's broadcasts, the network can thank a major winter snowstorm that will likely close down the heavily-populated Northeast Corridor.

 

[Charles]

Viewers atayed away in droves once they found out that NBC was not going to broadcast the oath taken by the athletes and officials.

 

[radiodouble]

> It was a given that the ratings for NBC's broadcast of this
> year's Winter Olympics (Turin/Torino) would not be as strong
> as four years ago (Salt Lake City) for one simple reason:
> Due to the time difference, none of NBC's prime-time
> coverage will be live.

True they weren't strong(22.8 million viewers vs 45.6 for Salt Lake),
but it was still highest rated program on NBC in over a year. Jeff
Zucker will take it since they delivered in the range that was promised to
their sponsors.

The tape vs live argument is weak. SLC '02 was held in this country so there
was naturally more hype factor and more national interest. Plus, you are not looking at the the entire picture. Olympic numbers have been on the decline for
years. Opening Ceremony is just one night out of 2 1/2 weeks of coverage.
Sydney '00 had the highest opening ceremony numbers in years,
yet the rest of the games proved to be a complete bust for NBC.



>
> According to this Zap 2 it.com story, the ratings for NBC's
> broadcast of last night's (February 10th) Opening Ceremonies
> were very good, but not enormous.
>
> The numbers were significantly down from 2002 (but then
> again, the 2002 Opening Ceremonies were not only broadcast
> live, but the Winter Games were taking place in the United
> States), but were still enough to dominate the night.
>
> I think NBC may actually get very strong prime-time numbers
> tonight and tomorrow night (February 11th and 12th), but not
> because of any potential U.S. medalists. If NBC scores very
> big numbers for tonight's and tomorrow's broadcasts, the
> network can thank a major winter snowstorm that will likely
> close down the heavily-populated Northeast Corridor.
>

 

[Joseph_Gallant]

Expect NBC's numbers four years hence in Vancouver to be significantly higher than what they will be in Turin/Torino since there will be many live events, even in prime-time.

But going back to this year's ratings, it will be interesting to see how the withdrawl of Michelle Kwan from the women's figure-skating will affect the Nielsen numbers. Kwan has been one of the most successful female figure skaters ever (although never winning Olympic gold; she did win 9 U.S. titles and five world titles; I believe Sonia Henie is the only female figure-skater to have won more world titles than Kwan), and Kwan was one of the very few athletes who was a "household name" to casual sports fans prior to these Games.

But Kwan might not have won the gold even if she were 100% healded from her injuries; teammate Sasha Cohen and Russia's Irina Slutskaya are considered the co-favorites to win it all. It would be a shock if either Cohen or Slutskaya finishes worse than second.