NBCU’s Beijing Bounty: 196 Million Viewers Through Sunday

2008 Games On Pace To Shatter Audience Record From Atlanta Olympics

By Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 8/18/2008 4:21:00 PM

With its cable networks doing their part, NBC Universal’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics appears to be well on its way to becoming the most-watched Games in U.S.television history

Through the first 10 days from China, NBCU TV properties have amassed 196 million viewers, trailing just the complete totals of the 1996 Summer Games from Atlanta (209 million), the 1994 Winter Games from Lillehammer, Norway (204 million) and the Summer Olympics from Athens (203 million) four years ago, according to officials at the programmer.

The 196 million viewer tally through 10 days is 11 million more than the first 10 days from Athens (185 million) and 3 million more than the Atlanta Games (193 million). With seven more days to go through the quadrennial event’s Aug. 24 conclusion, the totals through Aug 17 from these Games already exceed the final overall viewership totals for the Barcelona Games (192 million) in 1992 and the Seoul Games (194 million) in 1988.

From a primetime perspective, NBC, including the 15.8 rating/28 share from Sunday -- the first since Michael Phelps completed his amazing eight-gold-medal performance Saturday night -- averaged a 17.2 rating/30 share, translating into 29.8 million nightly watchers through Aug. 17, 14% above the 26.2 million that tuned in the action through the comparable span in Athens during 2004, according to Nielsen Media Research data. 

The Peacock’s performance is the best through the second Sunday for a Summer Olympics outside the U.S. since the Barcelona Games (18.6/35) and was up 9% from Athens (15.8/28)

Spanish-language broadcaster Telemundo in total scored 12 million unique viewers through Aug. 17, 12% more than from Athens.

On the cable side, NBCU vehicles netted 73.3 million average viewers through Aug. 17, a 20% increase from the 2004 Games.

USA Network, which offers daily Games coverage principally from 2 a.m to noon (ET) -- averaged 960,000 viewers through last Friday, up 20% from Athens.

Providing coverage from 5 a.m. through 5 p.m., MSNBC, through Aug. 15, posted a 650,000 average, 22% more than during the same span from Athens, while CNBC’s boxing presentation notched 606,000 viewers in its 5 pm. to 8 p.m. window, the same number it connected with from Athens.

NBCU’s recent portfolio addition, Oxygen, delivered 658,000 viewers on average in its weekday 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Olympic time slot.

Online, NBCOlympics.com garnered 754.3 million page views during the first 10 days of the Beijing Games, almost 200 million more than the combined 561.1 million total for all of the 2006 Winter Games from Torino, Italy and the Athens competition, said NBCU officials.