Friday’s USA-Canada men’s hockey semifinal game has become NBC’s most-streamed event surpassing Super Bowl XLVI. Overall, 2.122 million unique users streamed the game as compared to the Super Bowl’s 2.105 users. And what makes the more recent numbers more impressive is that the Olympics require authentication of users’ cable and satellite accounts while the Super Bowl did not. So NBC really has to be happy with these numbers.
Of course, the USA-Canada men’s hockey streams break the previous Olympic high of 1.2 million unique users for Thursday’s USA-Canada women’s hockey gold medal game.
As for the TV ratings, the USA-Canada women’s hockey gold medal game on NBC generated 4.9 million viewers. In 2010, the Vancouver gold medal game on MSNBC averaged 2.5 million. For a weekday midday sporting event, that’s very good.
In primetime, NBC saw ratings that fell below both Vancouver and Turin. Thursday night’s rating resulted in 12.2 with a 20 share. For the comparable night, Vancouver saw a 13.6/23 and Turin got a 15.8/24.
Average viewership on Thursday was 20.3 million. Vancouver averaged 22.9 million for the last Thursday night of the Games. Turin registered 25.7 million.
Minneapolis again topped all local ratings with a 21.1/34.
Here’s the NBC announcement.
NBC SPORTS GROUP SETS STREAMING RECORD AS MORE THAN 2.1 MILLION UNIQUE USERS LIVE STREAM TEAM USA-CANADA MEN’S HOCKEY SEMIFINAL
Team USA-Canada Stream Believed to Be Largest “TV Everywhere” Authenticated Audience in U.S. History
Women’s Gold Medal Game on NBC is Most-Watched Hockey Telecast, Excluding Stanley Cup Finals, since U.S.-Canada Men’s Gold Medal Game at 2010 Vancouver Games
NBCSN Continues Record-Setting Pace
Closing Ceremony to Stream Live On NBCOlympics.com & NBC Sports Live Extra AppSTAMFORD, Conn. – February 21, 2014 – Friday’s “TV Everywhere” authenticated live stream of the Olympic men’s ice hockey semifinal between the United States and Canada, which Team Canada won 1-0, generated more than 2.1 million unique users (2,122,447) – the most unique users ever for any NBC Sports Digital stream, topping NBC’s non-authenticated Super Bowl XLVI in February 2012 (2.105 million uniques). The 2.122 million unique users is believed to be the largest “TV Everywhere” authenticated streaming audience in U.S. history.
“In conjunction with our MVPD partners, we’re proud to provide compelling live streams, such as today’s record-setting game, that are advancing ‘TV Everywhere’ across the entire industry,” said Rick Cordella, SVP & GM, Digital Media, NBC Sports Group.
Friday marks the third consecutive day with a record-setting live streaming performance for NBC Sports Digital — Thursday’s U.S.-Canada women’s gold medal game was the previous most streamed authenticated game in the history of NBC Sports Digital and most-streamed Olympics event ever (1.2 million unique users on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app); Wednesday’s U.S.-Czech Republic men’s quarterfinal hockey game was also previously the most-streamed Olympic event ever (798,337 uniques).
NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app will continue to live stream events with wide interest over the final weekend of the Winter Games, including Team USA’s bronze medal men’s hockey game vs. Finland at 10 a.m. ET on Saturday, the Canada-Sweden gold medal men’s hockey game at 7 a.m. ET on Sunday, and the Winter Games Closing Ceremony at 11 a.m. ET on Sunday.
Following are television highlights for Thursday:
- Thursday’s thrilling women’s gold medal hockey game between the United States and Canada, won 3-2 by Team Canada on an overtime goal by Marie-Philip Poulin, averaged 4.9 million viewers on NBC (Noon-3:30 p.m. ET/9 a.m.-12:30 p.m. PT) to rank as the most-watched hockey game in the U.S., excluding Stanley Cup Finals, since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics men’s gold medal game (Canada defeated the U.S. 3-2 on an overtime goal by Sidney Crosby), according to live plus same day fast national data released today by The Nielsen Company. In addition, the Team USA-Canada game is the most-watched women’s gold medal game since the final between the same two countries at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games, which was aired during NBC’s live primetime show and included American Sarah Hughes’ surprising gold medal win in women’s figure skating. Yesterday’s telecast nearly doubled the 2.5 million viewers for the last women’s gold medal game, also a US-Canada matchup, at the 2010 Vancouver Games (live on MSNBC from 6-9:15 p.m. ET).
- Last night’s primetime Olympics on NBC (8-11:19 p.m. ET) averaged 20.3 million viewers and a 12.2 household rating/20 share. The comparable second Thursdays of the past two Winter Olympics averaged 22.9 million viewers with a 13.6 household rating/23 share for the 2010 Vancouver Games and 25.7 million viewers with a 15.8 household rating/24 share for the 2006 Turin Games.
- NBCSN posted 1.2 million viewers for Thursday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. ET coverage — up 32% from the comparable Thursday of the 2012 London Games (910,000, there was no London coverage prior to 8 a.m. ET). In 13 days of live Sochi Games coverage, NBCSN has posted the 9 most-watched weekday daytimes (6 AM-3 PM) in NBCSN history and the 4 most-watched weekend daytimes (6 AM-3 PM ET) in the network’s history.
TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR THURSDAY’S NBC PRIMETIME COVERAGE:
Market HH rating/share 1. Minneapolis 21.1/34 2. Kansas City 18.7/30 3. Salt Lake City 18.6/35 4. Denver 18.5/31 5. Indianapolis 17.9/30 6. Portland 16.8/30 7. Milwaukee 16.7/27 T8. Albuquerque 16.6/27 T8. St. Louis 16.6/26 10. Pittsburgh 16.3/25
That will do it.
