Olympics

NBC’s PyeongChang Olympics Opening Ceremony Scores Big

Key Takeaways

NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony for the PyeongChang Olympics posted a Total Audience Delivery average of 28.3 million viewers.
NBC Sports Digital’s Opening Ceremony streaming delivered an average minute audience of 449,000 viewers – more than double the audience for the Rio Opening Ceremony (181,000).
PyeongChang opening ceremony up 6% from 2016 Rio opening ceremony.

Stamford, CT

NBC’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony for the PyeongChang Olympics posted a Total Audience Delivery average of 28.3 million viewers to rank as the most-watched Friday night program on any network since the 2014 Sochi Olympics, according to live plus same day fast national data released today by Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics. (Nielsen “out of home” viewership will be available early next week.)

NBC’s 14.7/27 primetime household rating for the Opening Ceremony outperformed by 167% the combined rating of ABC, CBS and FOX for the night (5.5), to rank as the most-dominant Friday in People Meter History (Sept.-May TV season, since Sept. 1987).

“The Opening Ceremony was a terrific show, which we hope will only be topped by the excitement generated by the athletes and competition over the next few weeks. American audiences continue to be interested and excited for the Games, and the early consumption results show that our multiple platform strategy is dominating the media landscape.”
Mark Lazarus
Chairman of NBC Broadcasting & Sports
 

  • The NBC television viewership of 27.8 million for the Opening Ceremony marks the largest audience on a Friday night in four years, a stretch that included four Friday World Series games, two NBA Finals games, three nights of 2016 Rio Olympics coverage, and two nights of the Sochi Olympics.
  • Opening Ceremony viewership on NBC peaked at 31.5 million from 9-9:15 p.m. ET, as Team USA entered during the Parade of Nations.
  • Last night’s broadcast (8-11:02 p.m. ET) ranks as the largest audience for a Friday night on any network since NBC’s presentation of the 2014 Sochi Olympics Opening Ceremony (31.7 million viewers, Feb. 7, 2014). In addition, last night’s Total Audience Delivery topped by 6% the 2016 Rio Opening Ceremony (26.7 million TAD). The West Coast primetime telecast is included in metrics.

NBC SPORTS DIGITAL POSTS BIG NUMBERS AGAIN

NBC Sports Digital’s Opening Ceremony streaming (live at 6 a.m. ET and simultaneous to the NBC primetime show) on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app delivered an average minute audience of 449,000 viewers – more than double the audience for the Rio Opening Ceremony (181,000). NBC Sports Digital’s full-day streaming total of 64.2 million live stream minutes exceeded the total of 16 of the 17 competition days in Sochi. The Sochi Opening Ceremony was not streamed.

NBC Olympics this morning made available the full, unedited world feed of the Opening Ceremony of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games for viewing anytime on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app.