In the early returns, the Opening Ceremony of the Winter Olympics posted a sizable gain over four years ago — albeit with the usual caveats.
NBC coverage of the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony averaged 21.4 million viewers across preliminary Nielsen data and Adobe Analytics, up 34% from Beijing four years ago (15.9M). Both this year and in 2022, figures include both the live afternoon broadcast and primetime re-air. The preliminary Nielsen data is expected to be very close to the final result, which is not going to be publicized until Tuesday.
With an Adobe Analytics streaming audience of 3.0 million viewers — the highest for a Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony since NBC began reporting its streaming viewership in 2015 — the Nielsen-only audience would clock in around 18.4 million.
Keep in mind that Nielsen has changed its methodology considerably from four years ago, expanding its out-of-home viewing sample to 100 percent of markets last February and shifting to a new methodology in September that combines its traditional panel with “Big Data” from smart TVs and set-top boxes. Those changes generally give sports viewership figures a leg up on just last year, much less four years ago.
In addition, the Beijing Winter Olympics were a COVID-impacted edition featuring the reduced capacity venues and mitigations that seemed to have a negative impact on viewership — across the board — from 2020-22. Not surprisingly, the Beijing numbers were the lowest on record for primetime coverage of any Olympics.
If comparisons to four years ago are skewed by Nielsen methodological changes, comparisons to eight and 12 years ago — or further — are even less meaningful. This year’s Opening Ceremony audience fell well short of 27.8 million for PyeongChang in 2018 or 31.7 million for Sochi in 2014, and those were figures that include zero out-of-home viewing or “Big Data.” But they are also figures that were generated in an era of far greater linear television viewing. Perhaps those competing trends cancel each other out, but it may simply be the case that it is not possible to make a relevant comparison to any past Olympics.
