FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, August 9th, 2016

NBC OLYMPICS’ MONDAY TOTAL AUDIENCE DELIVERY REGISTERS 31.5 MILLION PRIMETIME VIEWERS – MATCHING LONDON 2012 OPENING MONDAY

New Total Audience Delivery Report Lifts Monday Night Rio Viewership by 9%

NBC’s Four-Day Primetime Adult 18-49 Rating Advantage over Other Networks Combined is Best in Olympic TV History

NBC’s Monday Night Coverage Delivers Highest Primetime Rating of Rio Games

NBC Olympics’ Record 647 Million Streaming Minutes through Monday Triples NBC’s Last Super Bowl

RIO DE JANEIRO – August 9, 2016 – NBC Olympics’ exclusive and unprecedented multi-platform coverage of the 2016 Rio Olympics continues to dominate the competition.

NBC Olympics’ new Total Audience Delivery report – which measures broader Rio Olympics consumption by calculating average minute viewing across broadcast, cable, and digital – further illustrates that dominance.

The Total Audience Delivery for Monday’s primetime coverage averaged an 18.1 household rating with 31.5 million viewers.

The opening Monday night of the 2012 London Olympics – which had no simultaneous live streaming and no competing primetime Olympic cable coverage – posted an 18.0 national rating with an average of 31.6 million viewers.

“One of the indicators of changing viewer habits, especially with these Olympics, is that our digital consumption has more than tripled from London in each of the first three days of full competition,” said NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus. “We’ve also been pleasantly surprised that our multi-platform strategy is paying big dividends.”

After four days, the NBC-only average primetime viewership (27.3 million viewers) and household rating (14.8) have respective 285% and 202% advantages over ABC, CBS and FOX combined – the second-largest Summer Games advantage on record (behind only the London Olympics), according to national data from The Nielsen Company.

Among Adults 18-49, NBC’s four-night 8.0 primetime rating in the demographic tops by 471% the other broadcast networks combined (1.4 on ABC, CBS and FOX) – the largest advantage in the first four days of any Olympics.

Last night’s NBC-only Rio Olympics coverage (8-11:05 p.m. ET/PT) posted a 16.4/28 household rating – the highest NBC primetime rating of the Rio Olympics. In addition, the telecast, which featured six U.S. swimming medals, Michael Phelps’ clash with South Africa’s Chad le Clos in the 200m fly semifinal, and the American tandem of Kerri Walsh Jennings and April Ross in beach volleyball, averaged 28.9 million viewers.

Also on Monday night, NBCSN’s live Olympic competition coverage averaged 1.6 million viewers, while Bravo’s live primetime Olympic tennis coverage averaged 720,000 viewers. The NBCSN telecast featured the second half of the U.S Men’s Basketball victory over Venezuela, while Serena Williams won her second-round singles match in straight sets on Bravo.

Additional NBC Olympics metrics:

  • For the third consecutive day, NBC Olympics digital platforms had their best day ever, with 13.7 million unique users on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app on Monday (up 47% from ‘12).
  • Live streaming minutes via NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app has more than tripled the London Olympics on each of the first three full days of competition. For the full Olympics, there have been a total of 647 million live streaming minutes, up 266% from the same time period in London – and the equivalent of three times the live streaming minutes of NBC’s last Super Bowl (215.7 million).
  • CNBC averaged 846,000 viewers from 5-8 p.m. ET – its best ever Summer Games delivery in that time period. Coverage featured of women’s rugby – including the U.S. vs. France match – and men’s beach volleyball.
  • MSNBC averaged 479,000 viewers for its multi-sport coverage from Noon-5pm ET.
  • Monday’s Olympic coverage on the networks of NBCUniversal was watched by 84.6 million viewers (28.5% of the U.S. population) in 49.5 million homes (42.5% of U.S. TV households).

TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR NBC MONDAY PRIMETIME:

1. Salt Lake City 23.5/42
2. Denver 22.7/41
3. Kansas City 22.1/36
4. Minneapolis 21.7/37
5. Richmond 20.8/32
T6. Austin 20.4/35
T6. Indianapolis 20.4/34
T6. Washington, DC 20.4/37
9. Columbus 19.7/33
10. West Palm Beach 19.7/31

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. The London 2012 Olympic Games were watched by 217 million Americans across the networks of NBCUniversal, making it the most-watched event in U.S. television history.

–Rio 2016–