FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, February 18th, 2022

USA NETWORK RANKS AS CABLE’S #1 SPORTS AND ENTERTAINMENT NETWORK SINCE START OF 2022 BEIJING OLYMPICS

USA Network’s Primetime Beijing Olympics Joins Tokyo Olympics as Network’s Best 12-Day Primetime Spans Since March 2018

Despite Puck Drops After 11 p.m. ET, NBC Olympics’ Hockey Coverage Delivers Top Audiences on Broadcast & Cable Television

USA Network Is Now the Cable TV Home to Many of NBC Sports’ Biggest Events, Including Premier League, NASCAR, INDYCAR, USGA and The R&A Golf Championships

New iSpot Metrics Show Olympic Dominance on USA Network

STAMFORD, Conn. – Feb. 18, 2022 – Propelled by live coverage of many of the most popular Winter Games events, USA Network ranks as the #1 sports and entertainment cable network in Total Day and primetime since the opening weekend of the Beijing Olympics on Saturday, Feb. 5.

In addition to Beijing Olympics coverage, USA Network is broadening its slate with the addition of premium NBC Sports events in 2022. USA Network kicked off the year with a New Year’s Day Premier League tripleheader and will present a full Premier League schedule. In addition, USA Network this year will feature NASCAR, INDYCAR, USGA and The R&A Golf Championships, college and Olympic sports, horse racing, cycling and more.

Following are NBC Olympics viewership highlights, with a focus on USA Network, the cable home of the 2022 Winter Games:

    • USA Network has delivered an average of 5 million primetime viewers from Feb. 5-16 – topping all sports and entertainment cable networks.
    • USA Network has delivered an average of 985,000 Total Day viewers from Feb. 5-16 – topping all sports and entertainment cable networks.
    • USA Network’s primetime viewership from Feb 5-16, excluding Super Bowl Sunday, is 1.6 million viewers – joining last summer’s Tokyo Olympics (1.7 million) as the most-watched 12-day spans in primetime for USA Network since March 2018.
    • Despite puck drops at 11:15 p.m. ET, a pair of Olympic preliminary round hockey telecasts on USA Network delivered two of cable television’s three most-watched hockey games since the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals. The U.S. vs. Canada men’s game on Feb. 11 and U.S. vs. Canada women’s game on Feb. 7 averaged 1.22 million viewers and 1.17 million viewers, respectively – ranking second and third among all hockey telecasts on cable since Game 2 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Finals (Montreal-Tampa Bay, 1.65 million on NBCSN, June 30, 2021).
    • Wednesday night’s U.S.-Canada women’s gold medal hockey game on NBC (also with an 11:15 p.m. ET puck drop) averaged a TAD of 3.54 million viewers – ranking as the second-most watched hockey telecast in the U.S. since the Oct. 2019 start of the 2019-20 NHL season (behind only NBC’s broadcast of title-clinching Game 5 of the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, Montreal-Tampa Bay, 3.62 million TAD).

 

New iSpot metrics further highlight the dominance of the Winter Games on USA Network for NBCU advertising partners:

    • Since Friday, Feb. 5, the 2022 Winter Games on USA Network delivered 3.6 Billion ad impressions, and during primetime had a 22% lighter ad load and delivered 23% more ad impressions per unit than the top cable sports network in the same time frame.
    • Since Friday, Feb. 5, USA Network’s primetime Olympics is the #1 cable sports programming for for ad impressions with a 37% share of voice compared to programming aired on the four most-watched sports cable networks.

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics.

ABOUT NBC OLYMPICS

NBCUniversal will provide coverage of the 2022 Olympic Winter Games from Feb. 2-20. The Opening Ceremony will be presented on Friday, Feb. 4, live in the morning and again in primetime on NBC and Peacock. Similar to recent Winter Games, NBC’s primetime Olympic coverage begins the night before the Opening Ceremony on Thursday, Feb. 3. Coverage begins on Wednesday, Feb. 2, on USA Network and Peacock. NBCUniversal is presenting its 18th Olympic Games, 12th consecutive overall, and sixth straight Winter Games, all the most by any U.S. media company.

–NBC OLYMPICS–