Skiing Reaches Olympics Viewership Heights

February 19, 2010

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Broadcast & Cable | Media & Entertainment | Social Media | Sports | Television

Freestyle skiing, which includes men’s and women’s moguls competition, was the most popular Olympic sport among US TV weekend viewers through February 15, 2010, according to a minute-by-minute analysis of viewing conducted by The Nielsen Company.

Nielsen reports that during NBC’s primetime broadcast coverage, an average of 26.9 million viewers watched the freestyle events in the first weekend of Olympic competition.
Downhill skiing was the second most popular sport, with an average of 26.7 million viewers watching coverage of the event. Luge coverage earned an average of 26.2 million viewers on NBC through the evening of Monday, February 15.

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Hockey Slashes into Online Discussion
A Nielsen analysis of Internet buzz from February 9-18, 2010 shows that hockey is the most discussed Olympic sport online. Among all online messages related to winter Olympic sports, more than 30% were linked to hockey. Luge generated the second highest amount of buzz over that time, with almost 18%, followed by figure skating with 10% of Olympics sports buzz.

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Sony Leads Ad Viewership
Sony was the most watched primetime advertised brand, on average, in the first three nights of Olympic events, February 12-14, 2010. The company ran one ad that was viewed by 30.7 million people. A spot run by “We are the World’s” Haiti relief effort earned the second most viewers with 29.7 million viewers. Meanwhile, Nike’s advertising was viewed by 28.9 million viewers. On average, commercial brands were viewed by 24.7 million viewers each.

Skaters, Snowboarders Generate Olympic Buzz
While hockey is the Olympic sport generating the most online buzz, when it comes to individual Olympic athletes, skaters and snowboarders dominate online discussion, according to previous Nielsen analysis.

The Nielsen Company analyzed online discussions concerning 25 high-profile athletes and medal winners involved in the Winter Olympics and found that American speed skater Apolo Ohno is the most buzzed-about athlete so far. Ohno was followed by US snowboarder Shaun White, and Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, who was tragically killed in practice prior to the opening ceremonies, came in third.

Kumaritashvili is the only non-US or Canadian athlete, as well as the only non-skier, skater or snowboarder, to make the top 10 list. Among the athletes ranked fourth to 10th, six are from the US and one is from Canada, freestyle skier Alexandre Bildeau. The other six US athletes consist of three skiers, two snowboarders and a figure skater.

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