Rio Olympics have not hit many viewers with a bang. Compared to the 2012 London Olympics viewership, this summer’s opening ceremony viewership has taken an average 28% drop. This 2016 Olympics has had the lowest viewership ratings since 1992 Olympics.
Although with the help of the latest U.S wins from Katie Ledecky and Michael Phelps, NBC has gained better viewership, but not an extraordinary amount. Monday night had a 29.7 million people watching the live swimming performances. From the opening ceremony, there was a 9 million-viewership increase. Usually, viewership numbers after every televised Olympic opening ceremony decrease as the event continues forward.
Good news for NBC is that their video streaming has taken off. Many Olympic viewers have commented on social media that due to the ”insane” amount of commercials, they have stopped watching the live broadcast and went to NBC’s Rio Olympic App.
Even with high streaming views, Commentators have blamed bad TV viewership on NBC Universal’s defiance to let the Olympics to play on different platforms. NBC has accused the act of letting channels that are not affiliated with any NBC Universal channels, is a form of stealing their exclusive product (since they own the rights to televise the event).
Another possible component for the lack of viewership could be due to the missing viewers in European markets. Due to the time difference, the Rio Olympics’ have a considerable four-hour time difference from many European countries. For European viewers, they are watching the most anticipated Olympic events very late at night if they want to view it live.
Reporters and commentators alike believe European viewership could be down because of NBC’s emphasis on digital viewing. Olympic fans around the world assume that most viewers in Europe are interested in watching live events on TV. Online viewership has risen from 6 million viewers to 8 million viewers in Europe since the last summer Olympics, but it is still a relatively low number.
Most NBC online videos of the Olympics’ are mostly small few minute segments of certain events. Even in the United States, it is hard to find videos showing an entire event online weather it is on NBC’s site or anywhere else on the web. Some of the events are available to watch fully on the NBC site, like the opening ceremony, but viewers have to log in to their cable service provider account to access the full content coverage.
