Current Events > Olympics ratings hit rock bottom, about half as many viewers as 2016

(+) Yeah! (+)

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.nytimes.com/2021/08/05/business/media/nbc-olympics-tv-ratings.amp.html

Ratings are really bad, probably among the worst, adjusted for population / potential viewership, in several decades. Ive listed some of the most commonly cited reasons in the poll, but I dont think these factors alone are enough to trigger a 50% decline in viewership..

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lmao

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They gotta add esports and stream this shit on youtube and twitch srs

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For me it's the time difference.

I had to wake up at 4 am to watch a fucking soccer game
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Doesn't NBC have exclusive coverage rights or something?

Bio1590 posted...

For me it's the time difference.

I had to wake up at 4 am to watch a fucking soccer game

The time difference reason doesnt make much sense because the 2008 Chinese Olympics (which were 1h off from Japan) got record high ratings. And London was difficult for West Coast US + Alaska + Hawaii (8-10h difference) yet it didnt dent ratings.

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It's a mix of many things I'd say. Time difference definitely is one, but Covid, loss of interest over the years, and not adapting to the times.
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NBC has fucked up the olympics for twenty years.

Nobody actually cares about the olympics.

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Time difference + NBC really fucked up their programming as ot was borderline to actually find out what was being aired in advance.

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dave_is_slick posted...

Nobody actually cares about the olympics.

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Only reason why I didn't watch hardly at all is because all I have now are streaming services, I don't really have live channels anymore. I think that's the case for everyone, and it's actually getting a bit harder to watch live events like this if you don't have cable anymore. I'll sign up for something to be able to watch the Winter Olympics though, not gonna miss out on the hockey.

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For me, it was impossible to find what I wanted to watch thanks to NBC.

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The ratings still did better than your political career did

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no audience makes for boring sports except fighting.

also, not making events available on something easy to access like YT or whatever.

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Why would Covid have anything to do with the ratings? If anything, Covid should boost the numbers due to how many people are staying home doing nothing all day.

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I heard people gotta pay to watch the olympics live so that's fucking bullshit and probably one of the contributors to the low ratings

In the UK, the majority of the sports were snapped up by a subscription channel instead of the BBC. The BBC weren't even given a chance to bid on television rights as the IOC just awarded them to Discovery/Eurosport.

i never cared about sports and never understood why anybody else does either

the olympics in particular are a special kind of suck

i didn't really have any method of watching it, since i didn't want to pay for any subscription and i cut cable a long time ago

and i figured since nbc just showed things hours after it happened, it was easier to just google the results of what i wanted to know

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How many people watch it just because it's the Olympics?
Maybe it's just those types of fans that haven't tuned in this year?

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I dunno why "wokism" would suddenly turn people off. Athletes have pretty much always been "woke", since their profession involves interacting with people from a wide mix of races and sexualities, which has that effect.

Most people I've spoken to think the lack of an audience at the events is a big turn off. Maybe that's why no one is tuning in.

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NBC's monopoly on broadcast rights are the problem. Their coverage of the olympics is absolutely garbage every single year and is making it more and more difficult for the average viewer to keep track of what's going on.

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I usually don't care to watch it, dunno why, probably because there's a lot of stuff to watch. This year was different, I watched the ladies sprint/hurdles, then felt guilt. I jested "I'm watching to see if they fall" only to have one stumble onto the first hurdle.

):

That's why I don't watch em.

I think it's also because people are slowly realizing that TV isn't necessary. They should have definitely streamed it on YouTube and Twitch, I would be much more inclined to tune in.

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dave_is_slick posted...

Nobody actually cares about the olympics.

This is the one.

The only reason karate and skateboarding are even "olympic sports" is because nobody cares about pole vaulting and all that other stupid shit.

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the only sport that ever mattered was curling

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I don't watch sports live since I ditched TV back in like 2010. DirecTV cost me like $105/month, and I decided no more. Don't miss it anymore.

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The only decent sport to watch in the Olympics is Ice Hockey. Full of starpower and games have so much variance that upsets happen in super competitive games.

Please Bettman allow the NHL players to play in 2022

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probably only because of a fucking pandemic

i'd like to see people back then try holding the olympics while the black plague was happening

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This has been true for a lot of shows over the last couple of years. The Grammys hit their lowest, pro wrestling is hitting record lows every year, NBA, NFL, etc. I don't know any long running shows outside of the news networks that have really improved ratings since the lockdowns started last year.

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You left out the actual reason. No one wants to watch an event that is xenophobic against black people.

Also,

Matt Gaetz for President 2032
TOP ISSUES IN THE US: National Debt, Illegal Immigration, Urban Crime, Welfare Fraud, Loss of Personal Freedoms

I never watch the Olympics. I don't care to watch those sports normally, so why would I watch them just because it's the Olympics. Also, I don't have cable, so I'm not sure I have a good way to watch things even if I wanted to.

Edit: i will watch some winter games on occasion just because it's different (snowboarding/bobsled)

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Couldn't give two shits about those kinds of sports

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TC should go back to posting YouTube videos about reporting people he doesn't like on GameFAQs to the Secret Service

This is the only time in my life that I wasn't glued to a screen taking in as much Olympics content as I could. I can point to two reasons; the first is the time difference, which normally hasn't been a huge issue for me before, but this time it's tied in with the second reason; fucking NBC.

They spread the content out so goddamn much, and parts of it are largely inaccessible. I have Sling TV (USA, NBC Sports, Olympics Channel), Locast (NBC), and Peacock (goddamn NBC's own streaming service); I should be able to watch whatever I want, whenever I want. That just isn't the case.

I'm a huge fan of the combat sports (TKD, wrestling, judo, boxing) and not a single event, from qualifiers to medal matches, are available for replay on any app. Other sports that I like to watch, like the team sports, didn't have replays available until sometime DAYS after the event...by that time I already know the result and won't bother watching unless something incredible happens.

Another thing that I generally enjoy is watching the primetime recap for some of the less played sports (badminton, archery, etc.), and I just found this years presentations annoying, and lacking in any of the things that I wanted to see.

I watched maybe 6 total hours of the Olympics this year, and that really sucks.

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No one answer this user. Their first poll option is some horseshit about being "woke," cause they're a fucking transphobe while still supporting a fucking pedophile for president as is evident by their sig.

Fuck off, TC.

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Time difference, streaming, COVID. It's 2021. People don't sit in front of the TV like in the 1970s and '80s.

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Id say its the outlet of tv as much as anything.

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Lack of Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt

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I dunno, I still love the Olympics but this year feels weird for some reason.

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NBC made it as difficult as possible to watch what you wanted to watch.

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Eat More Beef posted...

No one answer this user. Their first poll option is some horseshit about being "woke," cause they're a fucking transphobe while still supporting a fucking pedophile for president as is evident by their sig.

Fuck off, TC.

Hold up, isn't TC the failed politician? Or is my CElore knowledge wrong?

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KainWind posted...

I dunno, I still love the Olympics but this year feels weird for some reason.

No fans.

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Xavier_On_High posted...

Hold up, isn't TC the failed politician? Or is my CElore knowledge wrong?

Yes.

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Xavier_On_High posted...

Hold up, isn't TC the failed politician? Or is my CElore knowledge wrong?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/573081-hellhole/79588971

Because they are impossible to watch properly. They only broadcast a few sports that they think people will want to watch and they spend most of their time trying to hype up that chosen broadcast.

In an ideal broadcast, they are going all day long, on multiple channels, flipping through at least most of the sports, kinda like NFL Redzone. And after that day is done, by the next day they need to upload replays of everything online.

The coverage is atrocious. Every time I sat down to watch in the evenings after coming home from work, 40% of what I was watching was commercials, 40% was them artificially hyping things up, and maybe 20% of it was the actual sport. I gave up at a certain point and switched to online streams and it was significantly more enjoyable.

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