via NBC press release:
117 MILLION WATCH OPENING WEEKEND OF VANCOUVER GAMES
28.6 Million Average Audience For Opening Weekend; Nearly 6 Million More and 25% Higher Than the Torino Games
83 Million Total Viewers Watched Sunday’s Coverage on the Networks of NBCU
26.4 Million Watched NBC on Sunday Night; 3 Million More than Comparable Torino Sunday
VANCOUVER - February 15, 2010 - Through the opening weekend, 117 million people have watched the Vancouver Olympic Winter Games on the networks of NBCU; five million more than watched the first weekend of the Torino Games in 2006 (112 million) according to data available today from Nielsen Media Research.
NBCU’s Sunday broadcasts were seen by 83 million total viewers, five million more than the first Sunday from Torino (78 million).
OPENING WEEKEND AVERAGE BEST SINCE TABLOID-FUELED LILLEHAMMER GAMES: The 28.6 million average viewers for the opening weekend of the Vancouver Games is the most for a non-U.S. Winter Olympics since the *tabloid-fueled 1994 Lillehammer Games (39.9 million). The 28.6 million is nearly six million more and 25 percent higher than the opening weekend average viewership from Torino in 2006 (22.9 million).
*Fueled by the tabloid coverage of the Nancy Kerrigan/Tonya Harding scandal.
OLYMPICS DOMINATE PRIME; BEAT OTHER 3 NETWORKS COMBINED: Sunday’s primetime coverage drew 26.4 million viewers, more than three million more viewers than the first Sunday night in Torino (23.2 million), on a night that drew significant competition including original episodes of 60 Minutes, Amazing Race, Undercover Boss and Cold Case on CBS, the NBA All-Star Game on TNT and an overrun of the Daytona 500 followed by original episodes of Simpsons, Cleveland Show, Family Guy and American Dad on Fox.
· The 26.4 million viewers on Sunday night was more than the combined delivery of the next three networks (CBS, Fox, ABC combined: 25.1 million).
The national household rating of 14.3/23 for Sunday night is a full rating point higher and an increase of eight percent over Torino in 2006 (13.3/20). The 15.3/26 average household rating to date is more than two full ratings points and 16 percent higher than Torino (13.2/29).
THREE NBC OLYMPICS/SPORTS MOBILE APP IN TOP 10 ON ITUNES: Currently on iTunes there are three NBC Olympics/Sports Mobile apps, among the top 10 free sports apps (NBC Olympics Mobile app - No. 2; NBC Olympics Cheer app - No. 6; NBC Sports Mobile app - No. 9).
· The NBC Olympics Mobile app has generated 13.1 million page views since the Games began.
NBCOLYMPICS.COM UP 250% FROM TORINO: NBC’s Olympics website, NBCOlympics.com, has averaged 4.2 million unique users for the Vancouver Games, 250 percent higher than the opening weekend of the last Winter Games in Torino in 2006 (1.02 million).
· The site has also delivered 6.3 million video streams to date - 530% more than Torino’s first two days (1.0 million).
· In just three days, NBCOlympcis.com has delivered 10.8 million total unique users, and is already approaching the total number of unique users for the entire 17 days of the Torino Games (13.3 million).
METERED MARKET RATINGS BY TIME ZONE (Three-Day Average):
Mountain Time Zone 19.6/33
Pacific Time Zone 17.6/32
Central Time Zone 17.0/27
Eastern Time Zone 16.8/27
TOP 25 METERED MARKETS (Three-Day Average):
1. Milwaukee, 23.9/39
2. Seattle, 22.7/41
3. Denver, 22.6/39
4. Minneapolis, 22.0/38
5. Salt Lake City, 21.7/38
6. Columbus, 21.0/34
7. St. Louis, 20.7/33
8. Cleveland, 20.3/32
9. Portland, 20.1/37
10. West Palm Beach, 19.8/29
11. Boston, 18.8/34
T12. Sacramento, 18.7/33
T12. Providence, 18.7/32
T14. San Diego, 18.5/33
T14. Nashville, 18.5/27
T16. Kansas City, 18.4/29
T16. Norfolk, 18.4/28
T16. Ft. Myers, 18.4/30
19. Richmond, 18.2/28
20. Tulsa, 18.1/27
T21. Detroit, 17.8/30
T21. Pittsburgh, 17.8/27
T21. Baltimore, 17.8/28
T24. San Francisco, 17.7/34
T24. Indianapolis, 17.7/29
TOP 25 METERED MARKETS FOR SUNDAY, FEB. 14:
1. Milwaukee, 23.4/34
T2. Minneapolis, 21.5/35
T2. Denver, 21.5/34
4. Salt Lake City, 21.2/35
5. Seattle, 21.1/36
6. Portland, 20.4/35
7. Columbus, 20.3/30
8. Kansas City, 20.2/29
9. West Palm Beach, 19.6/28
10. St. Louis, 19.5/28
11. Boston, 19.2/33
12. San Diego, 19.1/31
T13. Norfolk, 18.5/26
T13. Providence, 18.5/30
15. Pittsburgh, 17.9/25
T16. Cleveland, 17.8/28
T16. Tampa-St. Petersburg, 17.8/27
18. Nashville, 17.7/24
T19. Austin, 17.4/27
T19. Ft. Myers, 17.4/27
21. Sacramento, 17.2/29
T22. Oklahoma City, 16.9/31
T22. San Francisco, 16.9/31
T22. Phoenix, 16.9/27
T22. Tulsa, 16.9/24
NBC Universal, broadcasting its record 12th Olympics the most Olympics broadcast by any network, will present more than 835 hours of Vancouver Olympic Winter Games coverage - representing the most total hours ever for a Winter Olympics, more than the last two Winter Olympics combined, and the most live hours ever for a Winter Games. The Vancouver Games are the first Winter Olympics to be presented entirely in high definition.
Not bad, while I have said Olympics are going down, did not mean viewership, meant coverage, the CTV feed in Canada is doing extremely well and NBC has been hit and miss, either they don’t care or they trying to save money. Now while I do feel the IOC’s Olympic license fees will have to go down soon, don’t know when that day will come seeing as it is still a huge ratings draw, well, not compared to the Super bowl but could be tied with AI which is kind of sad when you think about it. Advertisers are trying to pay less, same thing will happen with networks, everyone wants to be cheap yet make massive profit at the same time. Doesn’t always seem to work.
If the games where live, the west cities probably would be higher
People in Seattle, Portland, San Francisco, Las Vegas and San Diego couldn’t watch live at 5 or 6 p.m. as they struggle to get home from work. NBC has done the calculation and decided that the Mountain and Pacific time zones–which have 20 percent of the U.S. population–will watch more this way than live.
Milwaukee loves them some Olympics