Ratings Round: NBC's Olympics TV Ratings Down While Digital Viewership Skyrockets; NBA Finals Up Over 2020, But Down From 2019

Ratings Round: NBC's Olympics TV Ratings Down While Digital Viewership Skyrockets; NBA Finals Up Over 2020, But Down From 2019 By SVG Staff

Thursday, July 29, 2021 - 11:23 pm

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Ratings roundup is a rundown of recent rating news and is derived from press releases and reports around the industry. In this week's edition, NBC Sports' coverage of the Tokyo Olympics are seeing lower TV ratings but huge streaming numbers, the NBA Finals were up over 2020 but down from 2019, ESPN's X Games saw big viewership increases, NBC's Open Championship was up 8% over 2019, Fox notched its highest rated MLB All-Star Game since 2018 and ESPN had its best Home Run Derby since 2017, NBC's last NHL Stanley Cup Finals ratings were down, and more.

NBC'S Tokyo Olympics Pacing to Rank With SNF as Top Two Primetimes Show of 2020-21 As of Wednesday, NBC Olympics' primetime coverage averaging a Total Audience Delivery of 17.5 million viewers through Tuesday night - pacing to rank with NBC's Sunday Night Football as the two most-watched primetime shows in 2020-21. Tuesday night's primetime show, which featured swimming, women's gymnastics, and indoor volleyball, averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 16.2 million viewers, based on official live plus same day data provided by Nielsen and digital metrics from Adobe Analytics. With 15.7 million TV viewers, it marks the first time since the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics on NBC that any network delivered an average viewership of at least 15 million on four consecutive nights. In addition,Tuesday's Tokyo Olympics viewership more than tripled the combined primetime viewership of ABC, CBS and FOX (4.3 million) and marks the most-watched Tuesday night since the Presidential Debate on Sept. 29, 2020 (17.9 million on Fox News). (NBC Sports Group Press Box)

NBC Olympics Viewership Grows Over Opening Days of Games Sunday night's primetime show, which featured swimming, women's gymnastics, women's beach volleyball and triathlon, averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of approximately 19.8 million viewers - a sizable increase over Saturday night's primetime coverage (15.3 million), which was up over Friday night's primetime Opening Ceremony show. The 61% growth from Friday through Sunday is the largest increase ever in the first three nights of a Summer Olympics. Sunday night's TV-only audience of approximately 19.2 million viewers tripled the combined viewership for the other broadcast networks and marks the largest viewership for any primetime show since Super Bowl Sunday. (NBC Sports Group Press Box)

Peacock, NBC Sports Digital See Record Viewership Last Weekend NBCUniversal also delivered multiple streaming milestones on the opening Saturday of the Tokyo Olympics, as Peacock recorded its most-consumed Saturday ever and NBC Sports Digital set the record for the most-streamed Olympics primetime show ever (summer or winter). With Saturday's competition featuring swimming, softball, skateboarding, beach volleyball and gymnastics, Peacock delivered its best Saturday usage ever, while NBC Sports Digital's primetime show delivered a record Average Minute Audience of 648,000 viewers (data from Adobe Analytics). (NBC Sports Group Press Box)

Viewership for the 2021 NBA Finals on ABC Up 32% From Last Year The 2021 NBA Finals presented by YouTube TV on ABC concluded on Tuesday, July 20 when the Milwaukee Bucks defeated the Phoenix Suns to win the franchise's first NBA Championship in 50 years. Viewership of the 2021 NBA Finals on ABC was up 32 percent from last year's NBA Finals, according to Nielsen. The six -game series averaged 9,911,000 viewers. Tuesday's title clinching Game 6 broadcast was up 50 percent and was the most-watched game of the series. The broadcast averaged 12,517,000 viewers, peaking with 16,536,000 viewers from 11:30- 11:45 p.m. ET. Game 6 delivered the largest audience on television in the key demographic of People 18-34 since February 2021 and propelled ABC to win the night across all of television and in all key demos, including the Adult and Male demos. The game set 25-year ratings records in the Milwaukee (41.5 rating) and Phoenix (25.9 rating) markets. (ESPN Press Room)

Although NBA Finals viewing was up from a year ago, it was down from 2019 - registering the fourth-least-watched NBA Finals ever. The six-game series was down 35% from 2019, which averaged a 15.1 million. Overall, the NBA Playoffs on ESPN, TNT and ABC were up 35% over 2020 to 4.25 million Nielsen-measured viewers. (MediaPost)

X Games Summer Competition Sees Significant Growth In the first summer edition of X Games since 2019, X Games 2021 content across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC experienced double-digit viewership increases on television and triple-digit growth on @XGames social and digital media platforms. X Games 2021 telecasts experienced a viewership increase of 13% versus X Games Minneapolis in 2019. Among adults in the key 18-49 demographic, this year's event saw a 5% increase, and in the 18-24 demographic, X Games 2021 viewership increased 34% over all four telecasts and 47% over the two ABC telecasts versus 2019. Similar to X Games Aspen 2021, gains this summer were driven by viewers watching more minutes overall - up 5% compared to X Games Minneapolis 2019. On the social media front, X Games 2021 delivered more than 105 million video views - a 439% increase from X Games Minneapolis 2019 - and 326 million impressions across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat, which drove an increase of 318% versus 2019. (ESPN Press Room)

NBC Sports 2021 Open Championship Coverage Delivers 8% Viewership Increase vs. 2019 NBC Sports' coverage of the 149th Open Championship at Royal St George's Golf Club in Sandwich, Kent,

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