Olympics: USA/Spain Men’s Basketball Final Earns 12.5 Million Viewers

Posted by | 08/13/2012 at 5:23 pm

NBC earned one of the largest basketball audiences of the year for Sunday’s Olympic gold medal game between the United States and Spain.

The United States/Spain Olympic men’s basketball gold medal game drew 12.5 million viewers on NBC Sunday morning, up 108% from the 2008 gold medal game between the same teams (6.0M).

Sunday’s game aired at 10 AM ET, while the 2008 game began at 2:30 AM ET. Both games aired live in all time zones.

The 12.5 million viewers ranks as the largest audience for the men’s basketball gold medal game since United States/France in 2000 (16.3M).

In addition, USA/Spain ranks as the tenth-most viewed men’s basketball game of 2012, trailing all three NCAA Final Four games, all five games of the NBA Finals, and Game 7 of the NBA Eastern Conference Finals.

Not surprisingly, other Olympic basketball games did not fare as well. While the gold medal game aired on the NBC broadcast network, all other USA men’s basketball games aired on the NBC Sports Network.

NBCSN averaged 2.632 million viewers for USA men’s basketball games, with last Monday’s USA/Argentina group play game earning the largest audience (3.33M).

Rounding out the top five were Wednesday’s USA/Australia quarterfinal (3.09M), Friday’s USA/Argentina semifinal (2.82M), the July 29 group play game against France (2.65M), and the August 2 blowout of Nigeria (2.32M). Viewership was not immediately available for the August 4 game against Lithuania.

Most-Viewed Men’s Basketball Games of 2012

# Date Event Game Net Viewers (000)
1 Mon., 4/3/12 NCAAB Final Four: Kentucky/Kansas CBS
20.9M
2 Thu., 6/21/12 NBA NBA Finals: Thunder/Heat Game 5 ABC
18.4M
3 Tue., 6/19/12 NBA NBA Finals: Thunder/Heat Game 4 ABC
17.5M
4 Thu., 6/14/12 NBA NBA Finals: Heat/Thunder Game 2 ABC
16.7M
5 Sat., 3/31/12 NCAAB Final Four: Kansas/Ohio State CBS
16.6M
6 Tue., 6/12/12 NBA NBA Finals: Heat/Thunder Game 1 ABC
16.2M
7 Sun., 6/17/12 NBA NBA Finals Thunder/Heat Game 3 ABC
15.5M
8 Sat., 3/31/12 NCAAB Final Four: Kentucky/Louisville CBS
13.9M
9 Sat., 6/9/12 NBA East Finals: Celtics/Heat Game 7 ESPN
13.3M
10 Sun., 8/12/12 Olympics Gold Medal Game: United States/Spain NBC
12.5M

(Olympic numbers from NBC Universal Media Village)

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  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrea-Cavalli/757338131 Andrea Cavalli

    Had the game aired in prime time or at the very least in a more friendly timeslot, what do you think the numbers would have been, Paulsen?

    I know this site is only about U.S. ratings but I’d thought it would be interesting to see how the game fared in Spain, which is considered a huge basketball nation despite the fact soccer is #1..well, in Spain the game drew the LARGEST audience of the ENTIRE Olympics, with the only exception being the opening ceremony. The game drew 5,400,000 million viewers and a 44,90% share, which is higher than the closing ceremony (3.419.999 million viewers and a 29,7% share) and gymnastic (1.732.000 million viewes and a 18,5% share). The basketball game peaked at 6:01 pm local time (6.503.000 million viewers and a 52,7% share).

    The game also drew an higher rating than the most watched event involving Usain Bolt  (3.372.590 million viewers and a 23,6% share), the Spain/Honduras soccer game (4.054.000 million viewers and a 33% share).

    Only the opening ceremony drew an higher rating than the men’s basketball final: 5.656.000 million viewers and a 46,1% share.

    http://www.feb.es/NoticiaDesarrollo.aspx?idNoticia=43690

    • Sam

       Well you need to compare it with the Euro 2012 final (16 million viewers in Spain, 83% share) if you really want to know if Basket is anywhere near soccer level of popularity in Spain.

      You mentionned gymnastics but that sport doesn’t have the same draw in Spain because they are just not very good at it. As for Soccer olympics, there was no stars in the Spanish team and they were sent home after the first round.

      • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrea-Cavalli/757338131 Andrea Cavalli

        Well yeah obviously soccer is far more popular. The point is that among team sports basketball, while distant from soccer, is a solid second and keeps growing in Spain, especially among youngsters.

        No matter what, the basketball game was the most watched olympic event in Spain and only the opening ceremony drew a (barely) larger audience. I think this is nothing to be ashamed of for the game of basketball. Quite the contrary considering it’s not an easy feat outdrawing all of the other Olympic events and even coming close to the opening ceremony, which is an event that draws lots of non-sports fans to begin with.

        Not quite on the soccer level, obviously, but this still shows the drawing power of basketball in Spain.

    • Paulsen

      It probably would have come closer to 15, 16 million viewers if the game aired at 3:30 PM ET.

  • http://www.facebook.com/people/Andrea-Cavalli/757338131 Andrea Cavalli
    • Paulsen

      Thanks for the link.