Post by Blitz on Feb 18, 2022 6:26:09 GMT -5
Interesting dichotomy... China and its satellite surrogates tout its Winter Olympics as the most-watched Winter Olympics in the USA ever. US coverage says viewership is at historic lows.
And now this...
NBC’s Winter Olympics Ratings Are Heading Toward a Historic Low
Total audience is down nearly 50% from South Korea in 2018
More ad inventory could help NBC make up for reduced rates
By Gerry Smith - February 10, 2022
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-10/nbc-s-winter-olympics-ratings-are-heading-toward-a-historic-low
As the Winter Olympics near the halfway point, NBC’s viewership is nearly half of what it was four years ago and is on pace to be the lowest in the event’s history.
An average of 12.3 million nightly viewers per day have watched the Winter Olympics on Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal TV and streaming channels through Feb. 8. That compares with about 23 million viewers at the same point for the 2018 games in PyeongChang, South Korea, according to an NBC spokesman.
NBC anticipated about 40% fewer viewers than four years ago and cut its ad rates by a similar amount, according to people familiar with the matter. The network was trying to avoid what happened during the Tokyo games last summer, when the ratings fell below what it had guaranteed. That hurt NBC’s potential revenue because the broadcaster had to give additional commercial time to advertisers to make up for the shortfall.
So far this week, NBC’s Olympics viewership is roughly on par with what it promised, said Adam Schwartz, director of sports media at Horizon Media.
“Do I want the ratings to be down 40%? Absolutely not,” said Schwartz, whose clients bought commercial time during the games. “But I don’t think it’s a cause for panic about the Olympics whatsoever.”
NBC is hoping to make up for lower ad rates by airing the games on more platforms than in 2018, including TikTok and Peacock, its streaming service. That has boosted the amount of commercial spots the company can sell. As a result, NBC could lessen any potential financial hit from the ratings decline.
“Is there a scenario where we make as much, if not more? Yeah, there’s a scenario,” Dan Lovinger, NBCUniversal’s president of advertising sales and partnerships, said in an interview.
He added the Olympics are “going almost exactly as we suspected they would” and “we feel great about where we stand from an advertiser-delivery perspective.”
Even as the Olympics ratings keeping falling, sponsors have few other options to reach a large number of people in a fragmented media market. Demand remains high because the games still dominate television ratings for two weeks.
“We live in such a different landscape now compared to four years ago,” Schwartz said. “Viewership habits have changed so much. And live sports is still the most effective vehicle to reach people.”
Price Record
NBC generated $920 million in national ad sales for the Pyeongchang games and turned a profit. Lovinger declined to say how much revenue NBC expects for these Olympics. The combined sales from the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, which NBC will air on Sunday, would be about the same as in 2018, when it also aired both events, he said. The network has said this year’s Super Bowl set an ad-price record, as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot.
There are many theories for why the Olympics ratings are down. There’s the general decline in TV viewing; a 13-hour time difference between Beijing and the East Coast; a controversy over the host country’s human rights record; fewer fans attending due to Covid-19 restrictions; and potential viewer fatigue with a second Olympics just six months after the summer games.
By submitting my information, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service and to receive offers and promotions from Bloomberg.
NBC has heavily promoted Team USA, hoping that people will tune in to see American athletes win gold medals. But the Americans have gotten off to a slow start. One of the biggest American stars, skier Mikaela Shiffrin, was disqualified from two races, and American figure skater Vincent Zhou withdrew from a competition after testing positive for COVID-19. On Thursday, another American star, figure skater Nathan Chen, won gold, however.
Like last summer in Tokyo, NBC is hoping the games will draw viewers to Peacock. The streaming service is showing every Olympics event for the first time to people who sign up for its $5-a-month premium tier. NBC said total digital usage of the Olympics, including Peacock, surpassed 1 billion minutes, the fastest it had hit that milestone for a winter games.
NBC is also using the Olympics as a testing ground for a new way to measure viewership. While its advertising deals are still based on ratings provided by Nielsen, NBC is promoting audience data this week from market researcher iSpot.TV. That data has shown Olympics viewers are more engaged in the commercials, among other things.
“We’re trying to cover the gap in measurement that Nielsen can’t,” Lovinger said. “Consumption patterns have changed so rapidly and Nielsen hasn’t caught up.”
//////////////////
BEIJING WINTER OLYMPICS BECOME MOST WATCHED GAMES IN US DESPITE ‘DIPLOMATIC BOYCOTT’
- FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2022 - 11 HOURS AGO
macaudailytimes.com.mo/beijing-winter-olympics-become-most-watched-games-in-us-despite-diplomatic-boycott.html
More than 100 million Americans have watched the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where many U.S. athletes continue to show their talents, skills and sportsmanship, and share memorable experiences inside and outside competition venues.
With a boom in streaming services and a habitual use of social media, the 2022 Olympics, which have made Beijing the first city to host both winter and summer Games, could become the most-viewed video programming in U.S. history, according to media industry insiders.
The popularity of the ongoing event among ordinary Americans and the friendship between U.S. and Chinese Olympians showcased in the Games have lampooned the Washington-led farce of a so-called “diplomatic boycott” of the Games, and convincingly attested to the new Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.”
WIDELY WATCHED
It “definitely sent a positive message that the world will endure,” Marianne Chase, a retired elementary school teacher in Houston, the southern U.S. state of Texas, told Xinhua about the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. “We all need that right now.”
Chase was among the 16 million viewers in the United States tuning in to watch the technology-driven, visually-pleasing kickoff of the Games earlier this month despite a time difference of at least 12 hours across multiple NBCUniversal platforms.
More than 100 million Americans have since watched the Games on the networks of NBCUniversal, the U.S. media conglomerate has announced, adding it has also become “the most streamed Winter Games ever with 2.23 billion minutes consumed.”
“Considering that Olympic videos on YouTube and TikTok are going to rack up hundreds of millions of views, I wouldn’t be surprised if these Olympic Games end up being one of the most-viewed video events in U.S. history,” Michael Socolow, a media historian at the University of Maine, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying.
While most winter sports fans across the United States have watched the Games and cheered for their favorite teams and athletes at home or game-watching parties, others have chosen to have a try on their own.
Over the past weekend, amid romantic vibes, residents and visitors in Washington, D.C. had fun skating inside the ice rink at the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden, surrounded by magnificent works of art and towering sculptures.
Miles away at The Wharf – the U.S. capital’s iconic waterfront destination, those who had “missed your Olympic qualifier” were able to compete in multiple disciplines, including ice corn hole and curling, with televisions mounted on a wall inside a bar nearly replaying figure skating and curling matches in Beijing.
Ice hockey enthusiasts also feel excited about the Games, where the U.S. women’s team is seeking to defend the gold medal they won four years ago, and the men’s team is looking to get back to the podium for the first time since 2010.
“It comes around once every four years, really. So you gotta watch it when it comes. You’re also gonna be waiting for a long time,” Peter Lombardi, a high schooler from the U.S. state of New Jersey, told Xinhua.
For quite some time, Washington has gone to great lengths to mount pressure on Beijing by using the Games as a political tool and manipulating allies as anti-China pawns under the cloak of protecting human rights. But its “diplomatic boycott” has been foiled and ridiculed as the Beijing Winter Olympics are gaining extreme popularity around the world.
“Olympics are very popular in Norway,” Norway’s Chef de Mission Tore Oevreboe told Xinhua in Beijing. “We don’t believe in boycott. We want to participate.”
“Boycotting is not good,” Italian speed skater Michele Malfatti told Xinhua, hailing the volunteers of the Beijing Winter Olympics as very kind and the life in Beijing as very good.
COMPETING WHILE SHARING
Many Olympians from the United States have turned to social media to share athletic highlights, honorable and emotional moments, and behind-the-scene stories at the Villages. NBCUniversal said late January that Olympics-related content had already garnered over 18 billion views on TikTok.
“Everyone at home, thank you. Snowboarding, thank you,” legendary U.S. snowboarder Shaun White said in a short video posted on TikTok on Saturday, which also featured pictures of him at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.
The 35-year-old snowboarder finished in fourth place in the men’s halfpipe final last week, ending his career as a three-time Olympic gold medalist, a 13-time Winter X Games champion, and a six-time World Cup event winner.
While staying at the Olympic Village, White has been more than ready to respond to questions asked by some of his 1.5 million followers on TikTok. One of the viral clips showed him delightfully introducing traditional Chinese dishes for which he has a keen appetite, including “Sweet and Sour Pork,” “Kung Pao Chicken” and “Dandan noodles.” “In between competitions, I have just been eating,” he answered frankly. “The food is so good.”
Tessa Maud appeared to have been a “part-time reporter” when she was not competing in the women’s half pipe. Apart from a “Chinese food series” launched on TikTok, the U.S. snowboarder produced content on her training, pins she had exchanged with other athletes, and even packing procrastination.
U.S. luger Summer Britcher and her teammates had a surprising encounter with a life-sized Bing Dwen Dwen, and they asked the shy and polite chubby bear to share the elevator with them.
“We love you,” one voice said joyfully, though the cabin became immediately overcrowded when Bing Dwen Dwen moved in.
TRUE SPORTSMANSHIP
After the United States beat China in the mixed doubles round robin earlier this month, China’s curling duo Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi presented their American counterparts, Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys, with a set of pin badges featuring Bing Dwen Dwen.
The American duo later tweeted that they felt “honored to receive these beautiful Beijing 2022 pin sets in a wonderful display of sportsmanship by our Chinese counterparts.” Phill Drobnick, coach of U.S. men’s curling team, referring to it as “what the Olympics are all about.”
China’s Gu Ailing, who took the gold in the first-ever Olympic big air freestyle skiing competition, and Mathilde Gremaud, the bronze medalist from Switzerland, together consoled Tess Ledeux of France who finished in second place at Shougang Big Air in Beijing.
China’s veteran freestyle skier Xu Mengtao, a four-time Olympian and the runner-up at Sochi 2014, finally realized her dream of winning an Olympic gold in the women’s aerials on Monday.
Relieved and emotional, 31-year-old Xu burst into screams and tears before receiving a huge, long hug from American freestyle skier Ashley Caldwell, who just nearly missed out on the podium. “Taotao! Olympic Champion!” Caldwell greeted Xu referring to her nickname, adding, “I am so proud of you.”
“Some of the best love is found in friendship,” tweeted CBC Olympics, Canada’s official Olympic and Paralympic broadcaster. “Caldwell may have missed the podium in Beijing, but her reaction to Mengtao Xu winning gold on home soil warrants a perfect score.”
“True sportsmanship transcends borders,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying commented on Twitter. Xinhua
And now this...
NBC’s Winter Olympics Ratings Are Heading Toward a Historic Low
Total audience is down nearly 50% from South Korea in 2018
More ad inventory could help NBC make up for reduced rates
By Gerry Smith - February 10, 2022
www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-02-10/nbc-s-winter-olympics-ratings-are-heading-toward-a-historic-low
As the Winter Olympics near the halfway point, NBC’s viewership is nearly half of what it was four years ago and is on pace to be the lowest in the event’s history.
An average of 12.3 million nightly viewers per day have watched the Winter Olympics on Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal TV and streaming channels through Feb. 8. That compares with about 23 million viewers at the same point for the 2018 games in PyeongChang, South Korea, according to an NBC spokesman.
NBC anticipated about 40% fewer viewers than four years ago and cut its ad rates by a similar amount, according to people familiar with the matter. The network was trying to avoid what happened during the Tokyo games last summer, when the ratings fell below what it had guaranteed. That hurt NBC’s potential revenue because the broadcaster had to give additional commercial time to advertisers to make up for the shortfall.
So far this week, NBC’s Olympics viewership is roughly on par with what it promised, said Adam Schwartz, director of sports media at Horizon Media.
“Do I want the ratings to be down 40%? Absolutely not,” said Schwartz, whose clients bought commercial time during the games. “But I don’t think it’s a cause for panic about the Olympics whatsoever.”
NBC is hoping to make up for lower ad rates by airing the games on more platforms than in 2018, including TikTok and Peacock, its streaming service. That has boosted the amount of commercial spots the company can sell. As a result, NBC could lessen any potential financial hit from the ratings decline.
“Is there a scenario where we make as much, if not more? Yeah, there’s a scenario,” Dan Lovinger, NBCUniversal’s president of advertising sales and partnerships, said in an interview.
He added the Olympics are “going almost exactly as we suspected they would” and “we feel great about where we stand from an advertiser-delivery perspective.”
Even as the Olympics ratings keeping falling, sponsors have few other options to reach a large number of people in a fragmented media market. Demand remains high because the games still dominate television ratings for two weeks.
“We live in such a different landscape now compared to four years ago,” Schwartz said. “Viewership habits have changed so much. And live sports is still the most effective vehicle to reach people.”
Price Record
NBC generated $920 million in national ad sales for the Pyeongchang games and turned a profit. Lovinger declined to say how much revenue NBC expects for these Olympics. The combined sales from the Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl, which NBC will air on Sunday, would be about the same as in 2018, when it also aired both events, he said. The network has said this year’s Super Bowl set an ad-price record, as much as $7 million for a 30-second spot.
There are many theories for why the Olympics ratings are down. There’s the general decline in TV viewing; a 13-hour time difference between Beijing and the East Coast; a controversy over the host country’s human rights record; fewer fans attending due to Covid-19 restrictions; and potential viewer fatigue with a second Olympics just six months after the summer games.
By submitting my information, I agree to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Service and to receive offers and promotions from Bloomberg.
NBC has heavily promoted Team USA, hoping that people will tune in to see American athletes win gold medals. But the Americans have gotten off to a slow start. One of the biggest American stars, skier Mikaela Shiffrin, was disqualified from two races, and American figure skater Vincent Zhou withdrew from a competition after testing positive for COVID-19. On Thursday, another American star, figure skater Nathan Chen, won gold, however.
Like last summer in Tokyo, NBC is hoping the games will draw viewers to Peacock. The streaming service is showing every Olympics event for the first time to people who sign up for its $5-a-month premium tier. NBC said total digital usage of the Olympics, including Peacock, surpassed 1 billion minutes, the fastest it had hit that milestone for a winter games.
NBC is also using the Olympics as a testing ground for a new way to measure viewership. While its advertising deals are still based on ratings provided by Nielsen, NBC is promoting audience data this week from market researcher iSpot.TV. That data has shown Olympics viewers are more engaged in the commercials, among other things.
“We’re trying to cover the gap in measurement that Nielsen can’t,” Lovinger said. “Consumption patterns have changed so rapidly and Nielsen hasn’t caught up.”
//////////////////
BEIJING WINTER OLYMPICS BECOME MOST WATCHED GAMES IN US DESPITE ‘DIPLOMATIC BOYCOTT’
- FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 18, 2022 - 11 HOURS AGO
macaudailytimes.com.mo/beijing-winter-olympics-become-most-watched-games-in-us-despite-diplomatic-boycott.html
More than 100 million Americans have watched the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, where many U.S. athletes continue to show their talents, skills and sportsmanship, and share memorable experiences inside and outside competition venues.
With a boom in streaming services and a habitual use of social media, the 2022 Olympics, which have made Beijing the first city to host both winter and summer Games, could become the most-viewed video programming in U.S. history, according to media industry insiders.
The popularity of the ongoing event among ordinary Americans and the friendship between U.S. and Chinese Olympians showcased in the Games have lampooned the Washington-led farce of a so-called “diplomatic boycott” of the Games, and convincingly attested to the new Olympic motto of “Faster, Higher, Stronger – Together.”
WIDELY WATCHED
It “definitely sent a positive message that the world will endure,” Marianne Chase, a retired elementary school teacher in Houston, the southern U.S. state of Texas, told Xinhua about the opening ceremony of the Beijing Winter Olympics. “We all need that right now.”
Chase was among the 16 million viewers in the United States tuning in to watch the technology-driven, visually-pleasing kickoff of the Games earlier this month despite a time difference of at least 12 hours across multiple NBCUniversal platforms.
More than 100 million Americans have since watched the Games on the networks of NBCUniversal, the U.S. media conglomerate has announced, adding it has also become “the most streamed Winter Games ever with 2.23 billion minutes consumed.”
“Considering that Olympic videos on YouTube and TikTok are going to rack up hundreds of millions of views, I wouldn’t be surprised if these Olympic Games end up being one of the most-viewed video events in U.S. history,” Michael Socolow, a media historian at the University of Maine, was quoted by The Washington Post as saying.
While most winter sports fans across the United States have watched the Games and cheered for their favorite teams and athletes at home or game-watching parties, others have chosen to have a try on their own.
Over the past weekend, amid romantic vibes, residents and visitors in Washington, D.C. had fun skating inside the ice rink at the National Gallery of Art’s Sculpture Garden, surrounded by magnificent works of art and towering sculptures.
Miles away at The Wharf – the U.S. capital’s iconic waterfront destination, those who had “missed your Olympic qualifier” were able to compete in multiple disciplines, including ice corn hole and curling, with televisions mounted on a wall inside a bar nearly replaying figure skating and curling matches in Beijing.
Ice hockey enthusiasts also feel excited about the Games, where the U.S. women’s team is seeking to defend the gold medal they won four years ago, and the men’s team is looking to get back to the podium for the first time since 2010.
“It comes around once every four years, really. So you gotta watch it when it comes. You’re also gonna be waiting for a long time,” Peter Lombardi, a high schooler from the U.S. state of New Jersey, told Xinhua.
For quite some time, Washington has gone to great lengths to mount pressure on Beijing by using the Games as a political tool and manipulating allies as anti-China pawns under the cloak of protecting human rights. But its “diplomatic boycott” has been foiled and ridiculed as the Beijing Winter Olympics are gaining extreme popularity around the world.
“Olympics are very popular in Norway,” Norway’s Chef de Mission Tore Oevreboe told Xinhua in Beijing. “We don’t believe in boycott. We want to participate.”
“Boycotting is not good,” Italian speed skater Michele Malfatti told Xinhua, hailing the volunteers of the Beijing Winter Olympics as very kind and the life in Beijing as very good.
COMPETING WHILE SHARING
Many Olympians from the United States have turned to social media to share athletic highlights, honorable and emotional moments, and behind-the-scene stories at the Villages. NBCUniversal said late January that Olympics-related content had already garnered over 18 billion views on TikTok.
“Everyone at home, thank you. Snowboarding, thank you,” legendary U.S. snowboarder Shaun White said in a short video posted on TikTok on Saturday, which also featured pictures of him at the Genting Snow Park in Zhangjiakou.
The 35-year-old snowboarder finished in fourth place in the men’s halfpipe final last week, ending his career as a three-time Olympic gold medalist, a 13-time Winter X Games champion, and a six-time World Cup event winner.
While staying at the Olympic Village, White has been more than ready to respond to questions asked by some of his 1.5 million followers on TikTok. One of the viral clips showed him delightfully introducing traditional Chinese dishes for which he has a keen appetite, including “Sweet and Sour Pork,” “Kung Pao Chicken” and “Dandan noodles.” “In between competitions, I have just been eating,” he answered frankly. “The food is so good.”
Tessa Maud appeared to have been a “part-time reporter” when she was not competing in the women’s half pipe. Apart from a “Chinese food series” launched on TikTok, the U.S. snowboarder produced content on her training, pins she had exchanged with other athletes, and even packing procrastination.
U.S. luger Summer Britcher and her teammates had a surprising encounter with a life-sized Bing Dwen Dwen, and they asked the shy and polite chubby bear to share the elevator with them.
“We love you,” one voice said joyfully, though the cabin became immediately overcrowded when Bing Dwen Dwen moved in.
TRUE SPORTSMANSHIP
After the United States beat China in the mixed doubles round robin earlier this month, China’s curling duo Fan Suyuan and Ling Zhi presented their American counterparts, Vicky Persinger and Chris Plys, with a set of pin badges featuring Bing Dwen Dwen.
The American duo later tweeted that they felt “honored to receive these beautiful Beijing 2022 pin sets in a wonderful display of sportsmanship by our Chinese counterparts.” Phill Drobnick, coach of U.S. men’s curling team, referring to it as “what the Olympics are all about.”
China’s Gu Ailing, who took the gold in the first-ever Olympic big air freestyle skiing competition, and Mathilde Gremaud, the bronze medalist from Switzerland, together consoled Tess Ledeux of France who finished in second place at Shougang Big Air in Beijing.
China’s veteran freestyle skier Xu Mengtao, a four-time Olympian and the runner-up at Sochi 2014, finally realized her dream of winning an Olympic gold in the women’s aerials on Monday.
Relieved and emotional, 31-year-old Xu burst into screams and tears before receiving a huge, long hug from American freestyle skier Ashley Caldwell, who just nearly missed out on the podium. “Taotao! Olympic Champion!” Caldwell greeted Xu referring to her nickname, adding, “I am so proud of you.”
“Some of the best love is found in friendship,” tweeted CBC Olympics, Canada’s official Olympic and Paralympic broadcaster. “Caldwell may have missed the podium in Beijing, but her reaction to Mengtao Xu winning gold on home soil warrants a perfect score.”
“True sportsmanship transcends borders,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying commented on Twitter. Xinhua