The Rio Olympics were faced with problems. These problems included water pollution, crime waves, inadequate living quarters and new, frightening diseases. Many braced for low ratings, and they got them. Olympic ratings are down. Digital viewership is up.
Prime time TV ratings fell 17% compared to the London Olympics of 2012. Prime time ratings fell 25% among the critical 18-49 year old demographic. But digital viewership is booming. An incredible 1.86 billion, with a B, minutes of 2016 Olympics were streamed in the first seven days alone. That’s more than double of what London had in 2012 or what Sochi, Russia’s Winter Olympics had in 2014. Yes, less people are interested in this year’s Olympics. But more people are watching tidbits of them online. That creates a problem for NBC. You see, NBC has rights to the Olympics until 2032. They paid $12 billion for this investment. Naturally, they’re going to offer more digital options. Plenty of people are watching the Olympics on their computers, tablets, and smartphones this year. But you better have a cable login to watch the games, no matter how you’re watching it. The problem is not everybody has cable. How do they reach out to the millions who have computer devices but don’t subscribe to cable?
That’s a question NBC needs to answer sooner than later. More people obtain computer devices. Less people depend on cable. Why should they? In an era of Netflix, Hulu, and other streaming services, who needs the expensive costs and mediocre services of cable? That’s the dilemma. I tell you what…the prospect of this upcoming Olympics looked bleak. But some awesome stories came out of them. The stories are what saved the 2016 Olympics from total ruin. Technologically speaking, I guess the computers did too. But the human stories and competition are what saved these games from what many predicted would be a total disaster. NBC has the Olympics for at least 16 more years. What should they do to reach out to non-cable users? Should they?