Beijing Winter Olympics Viewership Ratings at Half the Level of Pyeongchang

[Photo by Reuters-Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Byung-hee] The number of viewers for the Beijing Winter Olympics has dropped to half of the 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympics, marking one of the worst levels in Winter Olympics history, Bloomberg reported on the 10th (local time).

According to NBC, the average daily number of viewers through TV and streaming services for the Beijing Winter Olympics until the 8th was 12.3 million. The average viewers for the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics was about 23 million.

The poor ratings could lead to a decrease in NBC's revenue. If the ratings fall below the level guaranteed to advertisers, NBC must allocate additional advertising time to compensate advertisers. In fact, last year's Tokyo Summer Olympics ratings fell short of the level promised by NBC to advertisers.

However, according to officials, NBC anticipated about a 40% drop in viewers for the Beijing Winter Olympics and signed contracts with advertising fees reduced to a similar level. So far, the ratings are not significantly different from what NBC expected.

Dan Lovinger, President of Advertising Sales at NBC, said, "The Beijing Winter Olympics are proceeding almost as we expected." NBC recorded $920 million in advertising revenue and made a profit during the Pyeongchang Winter Olympics.

Lovinger stated that the combined advertising revenue from this year's Winter Olympics and the Super Bowl is expected to be similar to that of 2018. The Super Bowl will be held on the 13th. NBC announced that the price for a 30-second Super Bowl ad this year reached a record high of $7 million.

Olympic viewership is on a declining trend. For the Beijing Winter Olympics, factors such as the impact of COVID-19, the 13-hour time difference with the United States, the Olympics being held again just six months after last year's Tokyo Summer Olympics, and human rights controversies in China are analyzed as reasons for particularly poor ratings.

Fundamentally, the reason for the decline in Olympic ratings is that as the means of watching broadcasts diversify, TV ratings themselves are decreasing. Considering the decline in TV viewers, NBC started streaming Olympic broadcasts from 2018.

NBC plans to change the way advertising contracts are made based on TV ratings in the future. Until now, NBC has contracted advertising based on Nielsen ratings. However, reflecting the diversification of viewing methods, NBC is testing a new rating measurement method during this Olympics.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.