Olympics' record-low opening ceremony ratings 'in line' with NBC expectations

The 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony drew in record-low viewership, as just under 16 million people watched Friday across NBCUniversal’s linear TV channels, Peacock and other media. That total audience delivery is down 43% overall from the 2018 Winter Games in Pyeongchang, South Korea, which saw an audience of nearly 28 million during its primetime opening ceremony broadcast. Friday’s spectacle in Beijing also fell below last year’s opening viewership levels in Tokyo, though not by much. The most recent Summer Olympics in 2021, which were postponed a year from their original dates due to COVID-19, drew a cross-platform audience of about 17 million, significantly missing advertisers’ expectations. NBC Sports chairman Pete Bevacqua said the start of this year's Olympics was "in line with the expectations of our advertising partners." While the Olympics’ initial coverage on linear TV was down sharply—hardly a surprise, especially given pandemic-era ratings declines that have hit everything from the Super Bowl to the Oscars—the opening ceremony did hand NBCU’s Peacock streaming service its best-ever weekday viewership, the company said. Viewers also watched a combined total of roughly 190 million minutes of Olympic streaming coverage on Friday, which bested Tokyo 2020 to mark the best-ever digital audience numbers for an opening ceremony. Unlike just about every other Olympics in recent memory, Beijing 2022 won’t be measured by Nielsen alone. NBCUniversal announced last month that it has formally certified iSpot.tv as an alternative measurement partner in a deal that will see the company track both these Olympics and Super Bowl LVI this Sunday. Under the multi-year agreement, iSpot will track both program ratings and ads. Get the latest Ad Age Super Bowl 2022 news here. The numbers from Friday’s opening ceremony are likely weaker than many network executives and advertisers had hoped for, though it’s worth noting the numerous hurdles faced by this particular Olympics, including a diplomatic boycott by the U.S. and other nations, allegations of human rights abuses by host country China, as well as a massive time difference. Beijing is 13 hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast, meaning that the live coverage of the opening ceremony on linear TV and streaming began at 6:30 a.m. on Friday. The event was replayed in primetime later that evening. The trepidation around this year’s games is also evident in how advertisers have approached it. While the U.S. has not formally pressured Olympic sponsors to pull out of the event, most brands have taken a subtle approach nonetheless, only ramping up their efforts a week or so ahead of the Beijing Games; many others have opted to sit out altogether. A majority of consumers also say they’d like to see more being done, with 58% of U.S. adults reporting that they would support companies that pull out of the Olympics given China’s human rights record, according to a Morning Consult poll released this week.

Olympics' record-low opening ceremony ratings 'in line' with NBC expectations

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