NBC shoots lowest ever Summer Olympics scores for Tokyo Games

Olympic athletes like Caeleb Dressel, Suni Lee and Sydney McLaughlin helped the United States win the most gold medals at the Tokyo Summer Games. For Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal, however, the size of the audience that watched was disappointing.

The Summer Games attracted an average of 15.5 million prime-time viewers over their 17 days, said the company, the lowest viewership for the Summer Games since NBC began broadcasting them in 1988 and a drop of 42% compared to the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. in 2016.

NBCUniversal had expected a drop in audiences due to the challenges posed by Covid-19, with some athletes unable to participate and no spectators allowed in the stands. The Games have been delayed for a year.

“When you look at the numbers in general and the impact Covid has had on sport, we were prepared for those numbers,” NBC Sports President Pete Bevacqua said. “For better or for worse, I really believe the pandemic and the postponement has had an impact on these games. Yet, he said, NBC television shows dominated the television landscape night after night.

Mr. Bevacqua said the Tokyo Games “will be very, very profitable for NBCUniversal despite the challenges of the pandemic.” NBCUniversal said ad sales exceeded those of the 2016 Summer Games, which brought in around $ 1.2 billion in ad revenue.