FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Sunday, February 11th, 2018

NBC OLYMPICS’ LIVE SATURDAY PRIMETIME COVERAGE FROM PYEONGCHANG TOPS RIO OLYMPICS OPENING SATURDAY WITH TAD OF 24.2 MILLION VIEWERS

Total Audience Delivery Provides 13% Boost to NBC Saturday Primetime Viewership, with Nielsen “Out of Home” Viewership to Come this Week

NBC/NBCSN Dominant in Primetime – Viewership Nearly FOUR TIMES the Combined Total of Other Broadcast Networks on Saturday Night

NBC/NBCSN Viewership Peaked at 25.7 Million as America’s Red Gerard Won Gold in Slopestyle 

Winter Games Delivers BEST-EVER Afternoon Rating & Viewership for NBCSN

NBC Sports Digital Sets Winter Games Record with 141 Million Live Streaming Minutes of Saturday’s Competition – More Than Seven Times Greater Than Opening Saturday of Sochi Olympics 

STAMFORD, Conn. – February 11, 2018 – NBC Olympics’ primetime coverage of Saturday’s 2018 PyeongChang Olympics competition posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of 24.2 million viewers, topping the opening Saturday of the 2016 Rio Olympics (23.5 million), according to live plus same day fast national data released today by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics. (Nielsen “out of home” viewership will be available this week.)

Last night’s NBC/NBCSN average of 23.9 million viewers dominated the competition – nearly quadrupling the combined 6.1 million primetime viewers for ABC, CBS and FOX.

Viewership on NBC/NBCSN peaked at 25.7 million viewers from 9:45-10 p.m. ET, highlighted by American Red Gerard’s gold medal performance in slopestyle. Saturday’s NBC primetime coverage also featured ice dance and women’s short program in the figure skating team competition. NBCSN presented women’s skiathlon, men’s ski jumping, and women’s biathlon in primetime.

 

NBCSN & NBC SPORTS DIGITAL SET RECORDS

  • NBCSN delivered its best-ever afternoon rating and viewership for Saturday’s 2-5 p.m. ET telecast, featuring women’s biathlon, mixed doubles curling, and long track speed skating. For the three-hour show, NBCSN averaged 4.5 million viewers and a 2.56 household rating.

 

  • NBC Sports Digital set a single-day Winter Games record on Saturday with 141.4 million live stream minutes from 2.4 million unique devices across NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports App. The 141.4 million live streaming minutes was more than seven times greater than the opening Saturday in Sochi (19.2 million minutes), while unique devices more than tripled the same day in Sochi (658,000). NBC Sports Digital delivered an average minute audience of 234,000 for primetime coverage.

 

TOTAL AUDIENCE DELIVERY & RATINGS NOTES

  • NBC Olympics’ coverage on NBCSN and NBC Sports Digital lifted primetime viewership by 13% last night (TAD chart below).

 

  • Last night’s Total Audience Delivery marks the best Saturday primetime viewership for any program in February in four years — since the opening Saturday of the 2014 Sochi Games (25.1 million viewers on NBC, Feb. 8, 2014).

 

  • Helped by Olympics promotion, Saturday’s Manchester City-Leicester City match delivered NBC’s largest Premier League audience in more than a year with an average of 1.15 million viewers (1.16 million for Manchester United-Tottenham, Jan. 21, 2017)

 

  • NBC’s PyeongChang Olympics broadcast last night (8-11:10 p.m. ET) averaged 21.4 million viewers and posted an 11.6/22 household rating. Viewership includes the West Coast primetime encore.

 

NBC Olympics’ Total Audience Delivery measures broader consumption by calculating average minute viewing across broadcast, cable, and digital.

 

TOTAL AUDIENCE DELIVERY FOR PYEONGCHANG OLYMPIC COMPETITION

Date Total Audience Delivery NBC-only viewership TAD Lift
Thur. 2/8 17.2 million 16.0 million 8%
Sat. 2/10 24.2 million 21.4 million 13%

 

 

OLYMPIC COMPETITION TOTAL AUDIENCE DELIVERY

Day PYC 2018 Sochi 2014** PYC 2018 Sochi 2014**
Opening Thurs. 17.2 million 20.0 million 9.7 rating 11.3 rating
First Sat. 24.2 million 25.1 million 13.1 rating 13.9 rating

 

**NOTE: The 2014 Sochi Olympics had no simultaneous live streaming and no competing primetime Olympic cable coverage. Both of those platforms are included in Total Audience Delivery for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.

 

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR NBC/NBCSN SATURDAY PRIMETIME:

1. Salt Lake City 24.5/46
2. Denver 22.7/40
3. Seattle 21.4/42
4. San Diego 21.3/43
T5. Kansas City 20.3/33
T5. Sacramento 20.3/38
7. Portland 20.0/39
8. Milwaukee 19.9/34
9. Tulsa 19.7/27
10. Los Angeles 19.6/38

 

ABOUT NBC OLYMPICS

A division of NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal’s Olympic Games coverage. It is renowned for its unsurpassed Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in U.S. television history. NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympic Games through 2032.

— PYEONGCHANG 2018 —