{"id":305223,"date":"2021-07-22T02:26:52","date_gmt":"2021-07-21T23:26:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/nbc-faces-ratings-flop-as-covid-plagues-tokyo-olympics\/"},"modified":"2021-07-22T02:26:52","modified_gmt":"2021-07-21T23:26:52","slug":"nbc-faces-ratings-flop-as-covid-plagues-tokyo-olympics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/nbc-faces-ratings-flop-as-covid-plagues-tokyo-olympics\/","title":{"rendered":"#NBC faces ratings flop as COVID plagues Tokyo Olympics"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#NBC faces ratings flop as COVID plagues Tokyo Olympics<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

NBCUniversal is hoping that Americans will soon be talking about gold medal-worthy Olympic vaults by Simone Biles and winning goals by soccer star Megan Rapinoe \u2014 not the coronavirus pandemic.<\/p>\n

As the official broadcaster of the summer Olympics, the Peacock Network is facing numerous threats that stand to make this year\u2019s game<\/a>s a ratings dud. <\/p>\n

And that would be bad for business, including NBC\u2019s new streaming service, experts say. <\/p>\n

\u201cIf I was an executive at NBC right now I\u2019d be hoping that the Olympic Games, No. 1 start,\u00a0and No. 2 get to completion,\u201d said LightShed Partners analyst Rich Greenfield. \u201cThis is certainly not going to be the Olympics NBC was hoping for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Coco
Tennis player Coco Gauff dropped out of the Tokyo Games after testing positive for COVID-19.<\/figcaption>
PA Images via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Olympic games are set to open on Friday in Tokyo as the coronavirus pandemic continues to ravage countries around the world. On Monday, Japanese carmaker Toyota said <\/a>it would be pulling its Olympic ads in Japan amid a nationwide backlash to the games being hosted during a state of national emergency. <\/p>\n

Other threats to the popularity of this year\u2019s games include a ban on spectators and a steady drumbeat of athletes contracting the virus, and in some cases dropping out of the games entirely.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Over 70 athletes have contracted the virus in Tokyo so far, including fan-favorites like tennis player Coco Gauff, who pulled out of the global event earlier this week. <\/p>\n

Without star athletes, ratings stand to suffer. And while NBC has already locked in over $1 billion in Olympic ads, poor ratings threaten to create a knock-on effect for other revenue streams. <\/p>\n

\"Swimmers
As the official broadcaster of the Summer Olympics, the Peacock Network is facing numerous threats that stand to make this year\u2019s games a ratings dud. <\/figcaption>
PA Images via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Low ratings could dampen new sign-ups to Peacock, the company\u2019s all-important streaming service, which is providing live coverage, replays and special programming of the Games, analysts said. <\/p>\n

Sagging viewership could also reduce ad spend on NBC shows leading into the Olympics \u2014 or following the broadcast, experts said. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re starting to lose spectators and athletes. How big is this problem going to get?\u201d said Greenfield, who noted that Olympic 2021 ratings could fall to 20 million, sinking below the weak ratings of 25 million NBC hit in 2016 for the games held in Rio. <\/p>\n

\"Scott
The Tokyo Games marks the 16th time NBC televises the Olympics. <\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Other experts have estimated even more meager viewership of 17 million, citing the 13-hour time difference and the lack of pre-game promotional ads from the network. <\/p>\n

NBC paid the International Olympic Committee, which holds the media<\/a> rights to Games, $4.4 billion for the four Olympics spanning 2014 to 2020 and another $7.75 billion for the next six games running 2022 through 2032.<\/p>\n

Prior to the pandemic halting the summer games last year, NBC said it sold $1.25 billion in advertising tied to the event. With the event now rescheduled for 2021, NBC has not publicly updated its figures, but recently said it expects to exceed ad sales from Rio Games, which came in at $1.2 billion.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Adding to NBC\u2019s woes, the pandemic continues to spread in Japan, where only 20 percent of the population is fully vaccinated. According to Reuters<\/a>, Japan has been averaging over 3,000 new infections a day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A
The Olympic Committee has enforced strict measures to prevent the spread amid rising Covid cases in Japan. <\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result, the IOC instituted numerous on-site restrictions, including banning spectators, social distancing for everyone else, and enhanced cleaning protocols.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

And NBC spokesman on Wednesday said: \u201cWe\u2019re excited to once again bring the biggest event in the world to American audiences on our many NBCUniversal platforms, and to showcase the world\u2019s greatest athletes as they come together to compete in Tokyo.\u201d<\/p>\n

NBCU chief executive Jeff Shell and other top brass have also opted to downplay the ratings threats and instead act as cheerleaders for the international sporting event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At a virtual Credit Suisse Investor Conference last month, Shell brushed off the potential disaster hanging over the Games, saying: \u201cI lived in London [in 2012], and everybody was worried about the traffic, and last time it was Zika, and you know, once the opening ceremony happ<\/a>ens, everybody forgets all that and enjoys the 17 days. And I think this is going to be the same thing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"People
There\u2019s a national backlash to the Olympic games in Tokyo amid a state of national emergency. <\/figcaption>
Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The CEO predicted that the Games could be \u201cour most profitable Olympics in the history of the company,\u201d which has broadcast the event 15 times prior.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The IOC generates nearly 75 percent of its income from selling broadcast rights and NBC is the single largest source of that revenue, accounting for about 40 percent of the total.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a feeling that these Olympics will have a ratings decline,\u201d said Patrick Rishe, a sports business professor at Washington University in St. Louis. <\/p>\n

\u201cLast summer when nothing was going on, if the Olympics had run then it would have stood out as being the only thing that\u2019s on TV,\u201d Rishe added. \u201cYou can\u2019t say that now.\u201d\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#NBC faces ratings flop as COVID plagues Tokyo Olympics” NBCUniversal is hoping that Americans will soon be talking about gold medal-worthy Olympic vaults by Simone Biles and winning goals by soccer star Megan Rapinoe \u2014 not the coronavirus pandemic. As the official broadcaster of the summer Olympics, the Peacock Network is facing numerous threats that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":305224,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/07\/olympics-001.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[70888,112387,1545,76319,71338],"class_list":["post-305223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-2020-olympics","tag-7-21-21","tag-coronavirus","tag-nbc-sports","tag-nbcuniversal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=305223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/305223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/305224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=305223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=305223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=305223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}