NBCUniversal is slashing its TV ratings expectations for the Beijing Winter Games by half based on time of day and platform, the company said on Tuesday, as it prepares to broadcast its second Olympic Games amid a pandemic.
Comcast Corp-owned NBCU and other media companies are also wrestling with a rating measurement system they say fails to capture the shift of consumers to streaming.
“If someone said, are you lowering your projections for digital consumption, I would say no; they would explode rapidly,” said Mark Marshall, NBCUniversal’s president of advertising and customer engagement. The issue we have as of now is that the change in consumption is not being measured. Unless we do that, our ability to attract an audience is going to leak. ,
NBC’s broadcast of the Tokyo Games, which were delayed for a year due to the pandemic, attracted the smallest audience for the Summer Games since NBC began airing them in 1988.
Advertisers and media companies rely on Nielsen to provide a “common currency” for measuring TV ratings, which form the backbone of the industry’s business model. Ratings help advertisers track audiences and set prices for ad slots to networks.
But Nielsen has come under criticism in recent years from NBCU and its other TV industry customers, many of whom say its approach is out of date. Nielsen measures TV audiences through a sample set of panelists using specialized equipment in their homes.
This month NBCUniversal announced that it is partnering with TV measurement firm iSpot.tv in a multi-year deal to measure its audience in new ways, including traditional linear, streaming and time-shifted viewing.
In addition to broadcasting coverage on the NBC Broadcast Network, USA Network and CNBC Cable Network, the NBCOlympics.com website and the NBC Sports app, NBC will live stream each of Beijing’s programs live on Peacock’s premium tier.
NBCU guarantees a special audience size to customers who spend $2 million to $4 million on Olympic ads, the company said Tuesday.
That detail, as well as the fact that NBCU is lowering its TV ratings expectations for the Olympics, were first reported by Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/nbcuniversal-slashes-winter-olympic-tv-ratings-guarantee-2022-1
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