The opening Sunday of the PyeongChang Olympics delivered the most dominant Winter Games Sunday night ever for NBC Olympics, as primetime coverage posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) average of 26.0 million viewers, 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 this week.)
Last night's NBC/NBCSN average of 25.7 million viewers dominated the TV competition - nearly tripling the combined 9.5 million primetime viewers for ABC, CBS and FOX. The NBC-only 22.8 million viewers in the 7-11 p.m. ET primetime window topped the other broadcast networks by 140% -- marking NBC's most dominant Winter Games Sunday night ever (people meter history, since Sept. 1987).
RECORD TAD LIFT
NBC SPORTS DIGITAL ECLIPSES FULL SOCHI GAMES
NBCSN POSTS LARGEST EVENING VIEWERSHIP SINCE 2015
ADDITIONALLY...
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% |
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 |
**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.
TOP 10 METERED MARKETS FOR NBC/NBCSN SUNDAY PRIMETIME:
1. Salt Lake City | 25.9/45 |
2. Denver | 24.5/43 |
3. Milwaukee | 23.9/36 |
4. Portland | 23.6/41 |
5. Kansas City | 23.1/35 |
6. Seattle | 22.2/41 |
T7. Austin | 21.4/36 |
T7. San Diego | 21.4/40 |
9. Minneapolis | 20.7/37 |
10. Sacramento | 19.8/37 |
ABOUT NBC OLYMPICS
A division of NBC Sports Group, NBC Olympics is responsible for producing, programming and promoting NBCUniversal's Olympic Games coverage. It is renowned for its unsurpassed Olympic heritage, award-winning production, and ability to aggregate the largest audiences in U.S. television history. NBCUniversal owns the U.S. media rights on all platforms to all Olympic Games through 2032.
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