FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, February 15th, 2014

TODAY’S THRILLING USA-RUSSIA MEN’S HOCKEY GAME IS MOST STREAMED HOCKEY GAME IN NBC SPORTS & NBC OLYMPICS HISTORY

Last Night’s NBC Coverage Joins 2014 Sochi Opening Ceremony as Most-Watched Friday Primetime TV Shows since 2012 London Olympics

NBC Primetime Continues Viewership Streak – Eight Consecutive Nights Topping 2006 Torino Games

NBCSN Posts Increase over 2012 London Games for All 7 Days of Coverage

STAMFORD, Conn. – February 15, 2014 – Today’s thrilling USA-Russia Olympic men’s hockey game, which went to an eight-round shootout before Team USA won, is the most streamed hockey game in NBC Sports and NBC Olympics history. Due to the popularity of the game, portions will air tonight in primetime on NBC, including overtime and the shootout. Al Michaels and Mike “Doc” Emrick will join Meredith Vieira on the primetime show to discuss USA-Russia.  A full encore of USA-Russia will air TOMORROW, Sunday, Feb. 16 on NBCSN beginning at 4:30 p.m. ET.

The authenticated game was live streamed on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app by nearly 600,000 unique users (598,552) and delivered 14.7 million minutes of consumption, both surpassing all matchups from the Vancouver Games and the record-setting 2013 NHL Stanley Cup Final. The uniques and minutes are, respectively, the second- and fifth-best NBC Olympics’ streams ever.

  • Last night’s primetime Olympics telecast on NBC (8-11 p.m. ET) averaged 19.2 million viewers, which coupled with last week’s Sochi Winter Games Opening Ceremony telecast (31.7 million viewers) rank as the two most-watched Friday primetime TV shows since the 2012 London Olympics, according to live plus same day fast national data released today by The Nielsen Company.
  • In addition, last night’s viewership is up 2% from the corresponding Friday of the 2006 Torino Games (18.9 million) to extend the streak to eight consecutive nights – every night beginning with the Opening Ceremony — that NBC’s primetime P2+ viewership has topped viewership of the last European Winter Olympics in Torino.
  • For NBCSN, Friday marked the seventh consecutive day – each day since coverage began on Saturday, Feb. 8 — the network topped the viewership of the 2012 London Summer Games. NBCSN averaged 977,000 viewers for yesterday’s 6 am-3 pm ET time period – up 60% from the comparable Friday for the London Olympics.
  • NBC’s Friday night 11.0 household rating/19 share was on par with the comparable night for Torino (11.2/19). The comparable Friday of the 2010 Vancouver Games posted a 13.4 household rating/23 share and averaged 23.3 million viewers.

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR FRIDAY’S NBC PRIMETIME COVERAGE:

Market HH rating/share
T1. Minneapolis 16.5/33
T1. Salt Lake City 16.5/35
3. Denver 16.0/32
4. Ft. Myers 15.9/26
5. Milwaukee 15.5/28
6. Dayton 15.0/23
7. Portland 14.9/28
8. Greensboro 14.4/21
9. Indianapolis 14.0/24
10. Providence 13.7/23

ABOUT NBC OLYMPICS

A division of the NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal’s Olympic coverage. It is renowned for its unsurpassed Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in U.S. television history.

–NBC OLYMPICS–