FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Saturday, February 24th, 2018

“BEST FEB EVER” – NBCUNIVERSAL’S MOMENTOUS COVERAGE OF WINTER OLYMPICS & SUPER BOWL LEADS TO MONTH OF DOMINANCE & MILESTONES

 Two Biggest Events on American TV on Networks of NBCUniversal – All in Unprecedented Three-Week Stretch

A New Standard of Dominance – Every Day, Every Hour NBC Olympics Primetime Coverage Dominated Broadcast Competition

Most-Watched Winter Olympics Late Night Show in a Generation

NBCSN Posts Best Month Ever & On Pace to Rank as #1 Sports Network in Total Day

STAMFORD, Conn. – February 24, 2018 – With NBC’s broadcast of the Closing Ceremony for the XXIII Olympic Winter Games tomorrow at 8 p.m. ET/5 p.m. PT, NBCUniversal will wrap up the Best Feb Ever – an unprecedented convergence of the two most anticipated and dominant events in American television that resulted in massive multiplatform consumption.

“While these Olympic Games will once again be profitable for NBC Sports Group, they also created major benefits for the rest of our portfolio, including NBC News, NBC Entertainment, Universal theme parks, our many cable networks, and our owned television stations and affiliate partners,” said Mark Lazarus, Chairman of NBC Broadcasting and Sports.

In this new age of media consumption, the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics propelled NBCUniversal to a new standard of dominance. NBCU’s average primetime television viewership for Super Bowl Sunday and Winter Games coverage (26.9 million viewers, through Thurs., Feb. 22) nearly tripled the combined total of the other broadcast networks (9.4 million for ABC, CBS and FOX).

On February 4, NBC televised the Philadelphia Eagles’ thrilling victory over the defending champion New England Patriots in Super Bowl LII in Minneapolis.  Just four days later, America’s sporting focus shifted more than 6,000 miles across the Pacific Ocean to the PyeongChang Olympics. Never before had one network televised both mega-events within days of each other.

Since Super Bowl Sunday, more than 229 million Americans tuned into the networks of NBCUniversal – far surpassing all other media companies. Millions more streamed the action live on NBCSports.com, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app, while even more experienced the events on a multitude of social media platforms.

Best Feb Ever – February Firsts…

  • First Time a Network Televised Super Bowl and Winter Olympics Four Days Apart
  • Super Bowl Produced by Crew of NBC Sunday Night Football – Pacing to Be First Show in U.S. TV History to Rank #1 in Primetime For Seven Consecutive Years
  • First Time NBCUniversal Broadcast Winter Games “Live Across” All Time Zones
  • First Time NBCSN Televised Live Primetime Winter Olympics Coverage
  • First Time NBC Sports Digital Live Streamed Primetime Winter Olympics Coverage
  • First Time NBCUniversal Live Streamed an Olympics Opening Ceremony
  • First Live NBC Olympics Stream on a non NBCU-owned Platform with Snapchat “Live”
  • First Time NBCUniversal Presented More than 2,000 Hours of Live Winter Olympics Coverage – with 2,400+ hours, comparable to the coverage of the prior two Winter Games combined (Sochi; 1,600+) and Vancouver (835)

 

 

Best Feb Ever – Viewership Highlights…

  • More than 229 million viewers have watched the networks of NBCUniversal since Super Bowl Sunday.
  • NBC’s Super Bowl LII posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 118.2 million viewers – which will easily rank as year’s most-watched & most-dominant Program, more than doubling the #2 show.
  • NBC’s post-Super Bowl telecast of This is Us scored as the network’s most-watched scripted show in more than 13 years, and most-watched drama on any network in 10 years.
  • PyeongChang Olympic viewership on NBC/NBCSN peaked at 29.7 million on the opening Sunday (Feb. 11) from 9:45-10 p.m. ET for the women’s free skate in the team event and women’s slopestyle snowboarding.
  • The PyeongChang Olympics has delivered a Total Audience Delivery average of 20.6 million primetime viewers – a figure unmatched by any TV show (minimum three episodes) from Jan. 1 through the May end of the TV season in four years.
  • NBCSN posts most-watched month ever – With a Total Day viewership average of 743,000 viewers through Feb. 22, NBCSN is on pace to deliver its most-watched month ever and ranks as the most-watched sports cable network in that span.
  • NBC Olympics’ “Prime Plus” late night show is averaging a Total Audience Delivery of 8.4 million viewers – marking the most-watched Winter Olympics late night show in 30 years (1988 Calgary Olympics).
  • NBC Sports Digital has delivered its second-best month ever for live streaming with 2.2 billion minutes, ranking behind only the Rio Olympics, which had three times more events (306 for Rio compared to 102 in PyeongChang).
  • The U.S.-Canada women’s gold medal hockey game averaged a Total Audience Delivery of 3.7 million viewers, which included a live NBC simulcast of overtime and the shootout, as well as live streaming by NBC Sports Digital. The NBCSN-only telecast delivered 2.9 million viewers, which is the largest audience ever for the network in the 11 p.m.-2:15 a.m. ET late-night window
  • More than 525,000 uniques watched the live stream of the U.S.-Canada women’s gold medal game to rank as NBC Sports Digital’s fifth-largest hockey audience ever, beating all NHL, IIHF, and college hockey games, and trailing only four high-profile games from the Sochi Olympics in more favorable time periods.

 

Best Feb Ever – Day-by-Day…

Sunday, Feb. 4 – Thrilling Super Bowl LII featured 74 points and the most yards in any game in NFL history (1,151). NBC Sports Digital’s live stream of Super Bowl LII ranks as the most live-streamed Super Bowl ever, delivering an Average Minute Audience (AMA) of 2.02 million viewers, with a peak of 3.1 million concurrent streams. The game is also NBC Sports Digital’s most-streamed single game ever.

Thursday, Feb. 8 – Debut of Mike Tirico as NBC’s primetime Olympics host on network’s first-ever live across all time zones Winter Games coverage, in addition to side-by-side presentation on NBCSN, and live streaming by NBC Sports Digital. NBC Olympics averaged Total Audience Delivery of 17.2 million viewers – most-watched Thursday night on any network in five months.

Friday, Feb. 9 – First-ever live stream of an Olympics Opening Ceremony by NBC Sports Digital. Hosted on NBC by Tirico and Katie Couric, Opening Ceremony averaged 28.3 million viewers – the most-watched Friday night show on any network in four years (and up 6% from Rio Opening Ceremony).

Saturday, Feb. 10 – NBCSN delivered its best-ever afternoon viewership in 2-5 p.m. ET window with average of 4.5 million viewers. NBC Sports Digital set a single-day Winter Games record with 176.3 million live stream minutes and 2.5 million uniques.

Sunday, Feb. 11 The opening Sunday of the PyeongChang Olympics delivered the most dominant Winter Games Sunday night ever for NBC.

Monday, Feb. 12 – NBC delivered the most-dominant Monday night in the Sept.-May TV season by any broadcast network since the 1998 Academy Awards. Only five days into the PyeongChang Olympics, NBC Sports Digital established a Winter Games record with 445 million live streaming minutes.

Tuesday, Feb. 13 – NBC registered the most dominant Winter Games Tuesday night ever. NBC Sports Digital delivered its largest primetime PyeongChang viewership for a competition night, with an average minute audience of 321,000.

Wednesday, Feb. 14 – NBC posted the most dominant Winter Games Wednesday night in 24 years, since the 1994 Lillehammer Olympics where Nancy Kerrigan and Tonya Harding competed against each other.

Thursday, Feb. 15 – NBC Olympics’ Total Audience Delivery average of 19.3 million viewers exceeded the prior Thursday in PyeongChang to rank as the most-watched Thursday night on any network in five months. NBCSN delivered its best primetime night of the Winter Games (2.75 million viewers). NBC Sports Digital eclipses 1 billion streaming minutes.

Friday, Feb. 16 – NBCSN completed the most-watched, seven-day primetime stretch in the network’s history with an average of 2.4 million viewers. NBCSN also ranked as the most-watched cable network in primetime over that span.

Saturday, Feb. 17 – Nearly 800,000 viewers tuned in to CNBC’s coverage of U.S-Canada women’s curling – ranking as the network’s best non-primetime delivery (5-8 p.m. ET) of the Winter Games.

Sunday, Feb. 18 – With 1.31 billion live streaming minutes via NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, NBC Sports Digital more than tripled the total live minutes during Sochi.

Monday, Feb. 19 – The U.S. men’s hockey team’s 5-1 victory over Slovakia on NBCSN averaged 1.62 million viewers, to rank as NBCSN’s most-watched late-night (10 p.m. ET or later) hockey game in four years, and the second-most watched hockey game in the late time slot in NBCSN history.

Tuesday, Feb. 20Lindsey Vonn’s bronze medal performance propelled NBC Olympics’ primetime coverage to a Total Audience Delivery average of 20.5 million viewers – an increase of 8% over the second Tuesday of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. The NBC broadcast delivered the most dominant second Tuesday of Winter Games coverage ever (people meter history, since 1987).

Wednesday, Feb. 21 – NBC’s primetime PyeongChang Olympic telecast was by far the most-watched show of the night – marking the 70th consecutive night that an NBC Olympics presentation has topped primetime. Team USA’s thrilling shootout victory over Canada in the women’s hockey gold medal game on Wednesday ranks as the most watched late-night program in NBCSN history. In addition, the overtime and shootout were simulcast on NBC.

Thursday, Feb. 22 — NBC’s primetime telecast marked the 32nd consecutive night that an NBC Olympics presentation has outperformed the combined primetime performance of the other broadcast networks. NBC Sports Digital has streamed 1.69 billion live minutes of the PyeongChang Olympics – quadrupling the full 2014 Sochi Games (420 million) with three days remaining.

Friday, Feb. 23 – Through the Friday primetime telecast, NBC has won 429 consecutive half hours of primetime on Olympic nights. The historic U.S. men’s curling gold medal game, which started at 1:30 a.m. ET, delivered NBCSN’s second-best overnight rating ever for a late night program.

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 —