The biggest success story of 2008 occurred half a world away.
The 2008 Beijing Olympics were a rousing success for NBC. Entering the games, expectations were not particularly high. NBC’s competitors “speculated that the [ratings for the Olympics] could be from the mid-12s to the mid-13s.” NBC wildly exceeded those expectations.
The games opened with the highest rated, most viewed Opening Ceremony ever for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics (18.6/33 rating, 34.2 million viewers). The momentum from the Opening Ceremony carried through the rest of the first week, as NBC capitalized on the draw that was Michael Phelps.
Phelps entered seeking a record eight gold medals in a single Olympics. His journey to that record captivated television viewers. NBC drew a 19.9/34 rating on the night Phelps set the record for most gold medals ever won, and a 17.6/32 on the night Phelps set the single-Olympics mark of eight gold medals. The 17.6 was especially impressive considering that it was on a Saturday night; the 31.1 million viewers NBC drew was the most for a Saturday night on the network in eighteen years.
Overall, during the first nine days of the Olympics, NBC averaged a 17.4/30 rating, the highest for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics since 1992. During the first full week of the Olympics, NBC outrated second-place CBS by 394%.
Without Phelps to attract viewers, ratings slipped during the second week of the games. NBC’s prime time telecasts on the final Friday and Saturday of the Olympics were the two lowest rated prime time Summer Olympics telecasts since at least 1988. Even so, NBC averaged a 13.9 rating in prime time during the second week of the Olympics, once again trouncing second-place CBS — this time, by 266%.
Overall, the 2008 Beijing Olympics were up 8% over the 2004 Athens Games, and were the highest rated Summer Olympics since 1992. The Games were the most viewed television event in history, as 214 million people watched at least six minutes of coverage on NBC’s family of networks.
The games were not just a success on television, as NBCOlympics.com “more than doubled the combined totals for the Athens and Torino Games in page views and unique users.”
On the heels of NBC’s success, several networks are putting together bids for future Olympics. ESPN/ABC, FOX and even CBS/Time Warner have expressed interest in bidding on the 2014 and 2016 Olympics. In December, the IOC pushed back bidding for those Olympics until after the site of the 2016 Games was selected. With Chicago in the running for the ’16 Olympics, there is little doubt that the networks would be more interested in bidding if they knew for sure that the games would be held in the U.S., rather than if they merely had a 1 in 4 shot.
2009 will be a crucial year for the Olympics, as the television deals for the ’14 and ’16 Games will be negotiated. How much of an effect will the momentum from the ’08 Games have on the next round of Olympics television rights?
