As we continue into the second week of the Sochi Games, some patterns are emerging about how our Xfinity TV customers are consuming Olympic content. Today, the country will watch the US face off against the Czech Republic in men’s hockey and promising American talent perform their short programs in ladies’ figure skating. At Comcast, we’ll continue to keep an eye on how people are watching content across screens, and we’re excited by the results so far.

 

Live TV

To date, NBC’s nightly primetime ratings have been 10 percent higher in Comcast households versus non-Comcast households, meaning Xfinity TV customers generate ratings that are a full point higher on average. This ratings lift builds upon previous success during the London and Vancouver Games. Before the Olympics, Xfinity heavily promotes the upcoming Olympics with our Every Medal. Every Minute. Every Screen campaign and follows through by offering a comprehensive viewing experience during the Games across all platforms. One example of how Comcast is driving ratings is our re-vamped X1 Sports app, where the action most viewers take is to tune-in to Olympic events showing on NBC, NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC or USA’s schedule. 

 

Xfinity On Demand

Despite the fact that the Winter Olympics offer about one-third the amount of video content as the Summer Games, Xfinity On Demand usage during Sochi has kept pace with the London Games. And when you look at On Demand usage during the last Winter Games in Vancouver, our customers have viewed 20 times more hours of On Demand content. The most-viewed asset so far features Indian luger Shiva Keshavan, who fell and recovered during a training run. 

 

This uptick reflects Xfinity On Demand’s growth as a viewing platform in recent years. About 70 percent of Comcast customers watch content on Xfinity On Demand each month, so it’s no surprise that Xfinity TV represents 86 percent of NBC’s total set-top box On Demand usage.

 

Streaming

One of our priorities for Sochi was to make the viewing experience on mobile devices and online as seamless as possible, especially with technologies like automatic in-home sign-in for viewing in the home and Facebook Connect for easy sign-in while out of the home. So far, Xfinity TV is the provider with the most successful sign-ins to NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app.

 

In terms of NBCOlympics.com’s video traffic, Xfinity.com has been the number one referral source on four of the first 12 days and is the overall number two referral source to Olympics content on NBCOlympics.com, second only to Google.

 

Also, we’re seeing positive and encouraging results for the NBC Sports Live Extra app on the X1 platform, which is available for the first time on the TV and provides 1,000+ hours of live action. Notably, Gold Zone, NBC’s Internet-only channel that offers live look-ins to key Olympic moments, has been the most popular Live Extra stream on the X1 platform.

 

As we head toward the Closing Ceremonies, we’ll continue to watch how our Xfinity customers are experiencing the games.  After all, we’re already thinking about ways we can make the Olympic viewing experience even better for Rio.