Only five more of these to go and we’ll be done with them. NBC’s ratings were very good for a second week as Tuesday’s ratings were up compared with the Athens games four years ago. And NBC will have much more to say in its press release:
BEIJING OLYMPICS ON NBC UNIVERSAL THROUGH 12 DAYS SURPASSES 17-DAY TOTAL FOR ATHENS
84% of All U.S. TV Households Have Tuned In
BEIJING –Aug. 20, 2008 –Through just 12 days, NBCU's Beijing Olympic coverage has surpassed the 17-day viewership total for the entire Athens Olympics, making it the third most viewed television event in U.S. history. The 203.3 million viewers nearly 12 million more than the first 12 days for Athens (191.5 million) and 4 million more than the Atlanta Games (199.2 million), which was the most-viewed television event in U.S. history. NBCU's coverage has reached more than 84 percent of all U.S. television homes.
MOST VIEWED EVENTS IN U.S. TV HISTORY:
1. 1996 Atlanta Summer Olympics, 209.0 million (17 days)
2. 1994 Lillehammer Winter Olympics, 203.9 million (16 days)
3. *2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, 203.3 million (*through 12 days)
4 . 2004 Athens Summer Olympics, 202.6 million (17 days)
5. 1988 Seoul Summer Olympics, 193.9 million (17 days)
The Beijing Olympic 12-day average primetime viewership is 29.3 million, 12 percent ahead of Athens in 2004 (26.1 million). NBC's average of a 17.1 rating, 29 share in households is the best through the second Tuesday for a Summer Olympics outside the U.S. since Barcelona in 1992 (18.1/34) and is an eight percent jump from Athens in 2004 (15.8/27).
Tuesday night garnered 71 million total viewers in primetime and 26.6 million average viewers, a six percent gain from the comparable night in Athens (25.0 million). The night earned a 16.3 rating/27 share, which is up four percent from Athens' comparable night (15.7/26).
TAMI FOR MONDAY: The TAMi (Total Audience Measurement Index) measures the 3600 hours of programming during the 2008 Beijing Olympics, including Television (P2+ reach), Online (Unique Users), Mobile (WAP unique users and Mobile VOD unique users) and TV VOD (unique users). Below is the TAMi measurement through Monday, Aug. 18:
Monday, Aug. 18: 94.3 million
TV: 86.5 million, ONLINE: 4.7 million, MOBILE: 425k, TV VOD: 37k
Sunday, Aug. 17: 107.3 million
Saturday, Aug. 16: 108.0 million
Friday, Aug. 15: 95.1 million
Thursday, Aug. 14: 101.6 million
Wednesday, Aug. 13: 101.0 million
Tuesday, Aug. 12: 105.1 million
Monday, Aug. 11: 103.1 million
Sunday, Aug. 10: 113.1 million
Saturday, Aug. 9: 97.8 million
Friday, Aug. 8: 74.6 million
Rick Kissell of Variety says even though ratings are down in the second week of competition, no other network is coming close to NBC.
The lovely Toni Fitzgerald of Media Life Magazine writes that NBC is also taking the important 18-49 demographic by a huge margin over the other networks. Toni adds that NBC’s cable networks are also seeing the benefit of carrying the Olympics.
Linda Moss of Multichannel News much of the high ratings come from first time viewers of NBC’s networks.
And TV Week says the other networks might as well go dark for the rest of the Olympics.
That’s it for this edition of NBC’s Got Ratings.
