Half US homes watching Olympics on NBCU nets
February 15, 2018
Half of US television homes and more than one-third of the country’s population have watched the PyeongChang Olympics on the television networks of NBCUniversal, according to fast cume data provided by Nielsen. Through Sunday, 109.6 million viewers (in 59 million homes) have watched the Winter Games on NBCUniversal networks NBC, NBCSN, CNBC and USA (does not include digital).
Primetime coverage on February 12th posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of 22.3 million viewers, according to live plus same day fast national data from Nielsen, and digital data from Adobe Analytics.
With an NBC-only average of 20.9 million viewers from 8-11 p.m. ET, NBC topped by 87 per cent the combined primetime viewership of ABC, CBS and FOX (11.2 million viewers) — marking the most-dominant Monday night in the Sept.-May TV season by any broadcast network since the 1998 Academy Awards, which featured Titanic as Best Picture.
Coverage was highlighted by 17-year old American Chloe Kim’s halfpipe gold medal, with viewership on NBC/NBCSN peaking at 26.9 million viewers from 9:15-9:30 p.m. ET as she made her final run.
Six days into the PyeongChang Olympics, NBC Sports Digital’s presentation had been accessed by 6.6 million unique devices – pacing ahead of the 2016 Rio Olympics (6.0 million through the comparable date) and more than tripling the 2014 Sochi Olympics (1.8 million at this point). NBC Sports Digital delivered an average minute audience of 283,000 for last night’s primetime coverage.
Additional findings:
- For the third consecutive night, the Total Audience Delivery provided a double-digit lift (10 per cent) over the NBC broadcast viewership. NBC Olympics’ Total Audience Delivery measures broader consumption by calculating average minute viewing across broadcast, cable, and digital.
- NBC’s PyeongChang Olympics full broadcast February 12th (8-11:24 p.m. ET) averaged 20.3 million viewers and posted an 11.5/21 household rating. Viewership includes the West Coast primetime encore.
- Helped by the Olympics lead in, NBCSN’s Chelsea-West Brom match on February 12th averaged 605,000 viewers – the network’s second-best weekday 3 p.m. ET Premier League viewership on record (711,000 for Arsenal-Manchester United, Feb. 12, 2014)
Total audience delivery for Pyeongchang Olympic Competition
| Date | Total Audience Delivery | NBC-only viewership | TAD Lift |
| Thur. 2/8 | 17.2 million | 16.0 million | 8% |
| Sat. 2/10 | 24.2 million | 21.4 million | 13% |
| Sun. 2/11 | 26.0 million | 22.7 million | 15% |
| Mon. 2/12 | 22.3 million | 20.3 million | 10% |
Olympic competition total audience delivery
| PYC 2018 | Sochi 2014** | PYC 2018 | Sochi 2014** | |
| Day | Viewership | Viewership | HH Rating | HH Rating |
| Opening Thurs. | 17.2 million | 20.0 million | 9.7 rating | 11.3 rating |
| First Sat. | 24.2 million | 25.1 million | 13.1 rating | 13.9 rating |
| First Sun. | 26.0 million | 26.3 million | 14.2 rating | 14.4 rating |
| First Mon. | 22.3 million | 22.4 million | 12.7 rating | 12.8 rating |
**NOTE: The 2014 Sochi Olympics had no simultaneous live streaming and no competing primetime Olympic cable coverage. Both of those platforms are included in Total Audience Delivery for the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.