With the outcome assured by halftime, the Olympic men’s basketball final was less of a draw on NBC.
Sunday’s United States/Serbia Olympic men’s basketball final delivered 11.7 million viewers on NBC, down 6% from the USA/Spain final in 2012 (12.5M) but up 95% from USA/Spain in 2008 (6.0M). Ratings were not immediately available.
This year’s final had the advantage of airing in the mid-afternoon, compared to the morning in 2012 and the middle-of-the-night in 2008.
It had the disadvantage of being a 30-point blowout — the U.S. at one point led by 41 — after the two previous finals went down to the wire.
Team USA’s win earned the 11th-largest basketball audience of the year, behind all seven games of the NBA Finals, Game 7 of the NBA Western Conference Finals, and two NCAA Tournament games.
Compared to other Team USA championship games, USA/Serbia attracted less than half the audience of last year’s Women’s World Cup Final, a USA rout of Japan (26.7M). It did top the Japan/USA Olympic women’s soccer final in 2012, which aired on NBCSN during the week (4.3M). This year’s USA women’s soccer team fell short of the medal round.
The game also trailed the 2010 Canada/USA Olympic men’s hockey final, which had 27.6 million in the same mid-afternoon window, and all four USA matches in the 2014 World Cup — three in group play and one in the round of sixteen.
The complete telecast window, which also included the men’s volleyball final, had 8.5 million viewers. Viewership was not immediately available for the previous day’s USA/Spain women’s basketball final, but NBC’s full telecast window had 7.3 million. Comparable figures in 2012 were not immediately available.
(Sun. numbers from NBC, with additional info via ShowBuzz Daily)
