No Surprise Ratings Down

It seems that every four (or, in this case, five) years, America's favorite Olympic sport is criticizing NBC's coverage.  Specifically, the media has had a lot of fun talking about how the ratings are down compared to Rio and how it's "disaster" for NBC, which is the U.S. rightsholder until at least 2032.  To which I ask the question: "Are you surprised?"

There are a number of reasons why the ratings are down, not the least of which the fact that the time zones in Japan and the United States are completely opposite each other!  More on that in a second, but there's another big factor that I think is likely a contributing factor to NBC's ratings for the Tokyo Games--all of the negativity surrounding them. 

For months, all you've heard is how these Olympics "shouldn't be held" and various other rationales for why they'd be "such a disaster."  The hard-core Olympic fans didn't care about any of that and were gonna watch anyway, but all that pessimism was sure to turn off some of the casual viewers who otherwise might've tuned in.  And even if they did still tune in, all of the excitement had been sucked out by the sheer volume of negative stories.

The one-year delay didn't help, either.  Everyone was planning on the 2020 Olympics actually taking place in 2020.  Then they were moved to 2021.  And even then, there was uncertainty about whether or not they'd happen.  That schedule threw everyone off.  An Olympic year happened without an Olympics.  Now there is one in a non-Olympic year.  Plus, a lot of people are still trying to get their lives back together after a very difficult year, so it's understandable that the Olympics might not've been on the top of their minds.

Then there's the obvious time zone situation.  Some events are scheduled in the morning so that they can be shown in prime time in the U.S. (and the middle of the night in Europe!), but a vast majority of them take place overnight and early in the morning.  As a result, it's impossible to avoid knowing the results in advance.  That generally hasn't been a problem for them before (their ratings in London were great!), when they've been able to use American success as a promo for the prime time coverage.  But the U.S. has had lackluster showings in several marquee sports, and people aren't gonna tune in to watch when they already know the Americans are gonna lose.

To a certain extent, they also rely on star power, so Simone Biles not competing really hurt them.  Same thing with swimming.  This is the first Olympics of the post-Michael Phelps era.  Yes, there's still Katie Ledecky and Caeleb Dressel, but neither one is the dynamic force of a personality that is Michael Phelps.  Ditto with track & field, which is still looking for Usain Bolt's heir as the face of the sport.

Frankly, there hasn't been a breakout star in any sport during these Olympics.  That's not NBC's fault, but it definitely had an impact.  They didn't have the Phelps or the Bolt (or the Biles), whose event was must-see viewing, whether you already knew what happened or not!  And those who had the potential to become breakout stars simply didn't deliver!

NBC loves their live coverage, too, which is why they successfully campaigned for the swimming finals to be held during the morning hours in Tokyo.  But track & field finals are held during both the morning and evening sessions, so they show some of them live and others 14 hours later.  It's enough to give you whiplash!  It's night in Tokyo, then all of a sudden it's daytime, then it's night again.  The little "Live" underneath the NBC logo helps a little, but you can't blame people for being confused.

They also pretty clearly have their favorite sports, which probably rubbed some people the wrong way, too.  Their coverage of track & field during the year on NBCSN and Olympic Channel is so good, but their coverage of Olympic track & field has been incredibly underwhelming.  I'd even venture to say it's been bad (which is nothing against their broadcast crew, all of whom are excellent).  Especially when compared to their coverage of swimming.  Likewise, they focused way too much on the new sports while relegating live USA men's basketball broadcasts to pay-per-view streams on Peacock (which were also free on NBCOlympics.com, BTW).  (I will give them credit for the smart decision to put the tennis tournament on Olympic Channel, where it was covered like a Grand Slam in the way tennis fans would expect, though.)

Although, I must call out those people who don't seem to understand the concept of time zones.  To everyone who was asking "Is this live?", do you not see the "LIVE" underneath the logo?  It's only there when something's live!  Also, if you're watching the daytime show, it's probably on tape...since that's the middle of the night in Tokyo!  Same thing if you're watching the prime time show, which starts at 9 am Tokyo time.  Since it's daytime, the stuff you're watching that took place at night isn't live.

Until Rio, NBC didn't have any prime time coverage on its cable networks, meaning if people wanted to watch the Olympics, they had to watch the broadcast network.  Not only is that no longer the case, they've got live prime time coverage going on four different networks at once!  And I'd argue that this approach may be affecting their ratings too.  Because if you don't want to watch what's on NBC, you can watch a different sport on USA or CNBC.  Or online.  (USA's daytime coverage, by the way, was very good.)

I wouldn't be surprised if people watching online is another big reason why NBC's linear ratings are down.  Especially since everything is done by noon, people could watch everything they wanted online before NBC's TV coverage even starts.  And, if they'd watched it already, they probably didn't feel the need to watch it again.

One of the good things about the 24-hour coverage on USA and NBCSN was that they basically showed everything live on one of the cable networks overnight, then later on NBC.  It also gave them the opportunity to show sports they otherwise never would have and additional games not involving the U.S. in some of the marquee sports.  And not just games that affected the U.S., either.

Unfortunately, it did lead to a lot of stuff being repeated multiple times (especially before the Opening Ceremony when all they had was the handful of soccer and softball games on loop).  They even had this problem on NBC itself!  They'd show something live (or live-adjacent) during the late night show, then again during the next day's daytime show.  I understand the rationale behind this, but it was far too frequent an occurrence.

Likewise, the criticism that people wanted to watch something but couldn't find what channel it was on and when was valid.  The depth of their coverage can definitely be overwhelming, especially during a Summer Olympics with its sheer volume of sports!  So finding something specific could definitely be a challenge.  Yes, everything was available online (with the sometimes better world feed commentary) and they had those "Around the Games" segments, but could they still have been clearer about what sports were on what network and when?  Absolutely!  (Although, the lady who claimed on Twitter that she "couldn't find" the Opening Ceremony is just an idiot!  It was on NBC twice!)

Whether NBC's lower ratings for the Tokyo Olympics are an anomaly or the start of a trend remains to be seen.  They can't be compared them to the Rio Games, though.  Those Olympics were shown primarily live and took place in a much different world.  Just like the Paris Games three years from now can't be compared to Tokyo (spoiler alert, all of prime time will be on tape in 2024).  Either way, NBC still isn't regretting its investment in the Olympics, even if its critics might want it to.