Winter Olympics ratings are still barely above 2006 levels, but Friday’s coverage delivered the Games’ first increase over 2014.
Friday’s primetime Winter Olympics coverage had a 9.4 rating and 16.6 million viewers on NBC, down 14% in ratings and 13% in viewership from 2014 (10.9, 19.1M) and down 30% and 29% respectively from 2010 (13.4, 23.3M). Ratings include primetime encores on the West Coast.
NBC’s primetime coverage now airs across broadcast, cable and streaming. Including concurrent viewership on NBCSN and NBC Sports digital platforms, Friday’s primetime window had a 10.9 (flat) and 19.2 million (+0.5%).
Friday marked the first time in the Olympics that combined viewership has exceeded the comparable night in 2014. Despite that milestone, it was still the lowest rated night of the Games. That is no real surprise given Friday is one of the lowest rated nights of the week.
Versus the same night of the 2016 Summer Olympics, which also included primetime cable and streaming coverage, ratings fell 27% (from 15.0) and viewership 26% (from 26.0M).
Viewership peaked at 21.9 million from 10-10:15 PM ET. That quarter-hour included alpine skiing on NBC and the men’s figure skating final on NBCSN.
Through Friday, the Winter Olympics is averaging a combined 12.4 rating and 22.2 million viewers in primetime — down 7% in ratings and 6% in viewership from 2014 (13.4, 23.7M) and the lowest average since Turin in 2006 (12.3, 20.7M). NBC alone is averaging 19.9 million, falling below Turin as the lowest for any Olympics since at least 1992.
Salt Lake City led all markets Friday night with a 21.1 rating, up 28% from 2014. Denver ranked second with a 19.6 (+23%). Rounding out the rest of the top ten were Milwaukee and Austin, Tex. (17.6 in each), West Palm Beach and Minneapols-St. Paul (16.5 in each), San Diego (16.3), Seattle (16.1) and Sacramento and Ft. Myers, Fla. (16.0 in each).
[Fri. numbers from NBC Sports Group Press Box 2.17]
