Are you watching the Summer Olympics? Because NBC is beginning to worry that you aren't; in a year the network had hoped would blow the London 2012 ratings out of the water, NBC is experiencing quite the letdown with Rio viewership:
NBC's performance stumbled early: Viewership for Friday's opening ceremony fell 35 percent compared with four years ago, followed by a 28 percent tumble in the first day of competition. Although NBC has done better since, the average audience of 28.6 million after five days is down nearly 20 percent from the 35.6 million who were watching the London Games.And viewership among people ages 18 to 34 has fallen 32 percent. [The New York Times]
For a year that features the return of superstars like Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt, this news should all be causing some nervousness over at NBC. But the company believes that it knows where its primetime viewers are going — cable channels, Bravo and NBCSN, and online.
"The Olympics are not immune to the tectonic changes in consumer media behavior," Alan Wurtzel, the president of research and media development at NBCUniversal, told The New York Times.
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