More On:
2020 olympics
Team USA swimming is on an Olympic tear
Med student wins historic gold medal for Team USA: ‘Oh my God!’
Trump says ‘woke politics’ contributed to US women’s soccer upset at Olympics
Shame on Team USA, NBC for this all-time debacle
NBC’s broadcast of the opening ceremony for the 2021 Olympics attracted 16.7 million viewers in the US — the lowest audience in 33 years, preliminary data released by NBCUniversal shows.
On all of NBC’s platforms — including the network, stations and apps — 17 million people watched the event on Friday, NBCUniversal said in an email.
The TV audience was the lowest since the 1988 Seoul Games, which drew 22.7 million people to their tubes.
Friday’s viewership was also smaller than the 1992 Barcelona Games, when 21.6 million people tuned in, according to Nielsen’s data.
The audience numbers for the Tokyo opener declined 37 percent from 2016’s Brazil games, when 26.5 million people watched the opening festivities, and 59 percent from 2012, when 40.7 million people watched the ceremony held in London.
The streaming audience on the Comcast platforms grew 76 percent from the 2018 PyeongChang opening ceremony and 72 percent from the 2016 Rio opener. But despite the recent proliferation of streaming options for those without cable TV, Friday’s overall audience was significantly lower than in years past, figures showed.
Follow all the 2020 Olympics action
- Daily updated medal counts, full schedule and results, athlete bios and more
- Full Post coverage of the Games
The ratings difficulties for the fanless Olympics comes after The Post reported on the challenges of getting viewers to laptops and TVs. Unlike the NFL, NBC has opted not to pump in fake crowd noise to the broadcast.
NBC’s Olympic executive producer Molly Solomon said the lack of spectators presented an opportunity to “bring viewers closer to the action than ever.
“We believe there’s an opportunity to bring viewers closer to the action than ever,” Solomon previously said. “And it’s sports like swimming, gymnastics, track, basketball, beach volleyball. You’re going to hear the sounds of games like you’ve never heard them before — from the thrashing and splashing in the pool to these intimate conversations between competitors and coaches.”
“We really believe the Tokyo Olympics will be the most meaningful Olympics in our lifetime.”
With Post wires
Share this article:
Source: Read Full Article
