(Reuters) – NBC’s full-day protection of the opening ceremony for the Beijing Olympic Video games averaged near 14 million U.S. tv viewers, in response to preliminary information offered by Comcast-owned NBCUniversal on Saturday.
Throughout all platforms, together with NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports activities app, the common viewers reached practically 16 million folks, the corporate mentioned in an e mail.The Beijing Video games have been marred in controversy over the previous yr, and the USA and different governments have introduced a diplomatic boycott of the occasion for what they are saying are rights abuses in opposition to Uyghurs and different Muslim minority teams within the Xinjiang area. China denies wrongdoing in Xinjiang and says camps for Uyghurs present vocational coaching and curb spiritual extremism.
The Beijing Video games, the second Olympics NBC will broadcast within the coronavirus pandemic, current a possibility for the corporate to refine its technique primarily based on what it discovered final summer season. Its broadcast of the Tokyo Video games, which had been delayed for a yr due to the pandemic, drew the smallest viewers for the Summer season Video games since NBC started broadcasting them in 1988. But the competitions nonetheless pulled within the greatest audiences on tv after they aired, making them engaging showcases for advertisers.
For Beijing, NBC mentioned it’s doing extra to simplify the viewing expertise, addressing criticism that final summer season’s content material was troublesome to search out throughout the corporate’s many platforms, together with its Peacock streaming service.
NBC is streaming each Beijing occasion dwell on Peacock’s premium tier, along with airing protection throughout the NBC broadcast community, USA Community and CNBC cable networks, NBCOlympics.com web site and NBC Sports activities app. Additionally it is providing a customizable schedule on NBCOlympics.com, and air on-screen cues throughout studio segments that remind viewers what’s arising.
NBCUniversal paid $7.65 billion to increase its U.S. broadcast rights for the Olympics by means of 2032.
(Reporting by Lisa Richwine; Enhancing by Leslie Adler and Daniel Wallis)
Supply: KFGO
