Ratings were disappointing, network observers say

NBC fares well in games coverage, but deserves no medals

From Jodi Ross
CNN Showbiz Today Correspondent

NEW YORK (CNN) -- After 17 days in Sydney, the Olympic flame has been extinguished.

For NBC, the dream of ratings gold went out with it.

Olympic ratings hit their lowest levels in decades, down 21 percent from the 1988 Games in Seoul, down 35 percent from the 1996 Atlanta Games.

NBC's "programming and their production has been terrific," said Neil Pilson, president of CBS Sports. "The problem is, they raised the level of expectation with the media and with viewers that they were unable to reach."

The drop-off was blamed on an array of factors: tape-delayed broadcasts; the late-season scheduling of the Summer Games; the fragmentation of network audience.

Still, the numbers weren't bad, some experts maintained.

"Even if the ratings were disappointing, some 22 (million) to 25 million people a night were watching the Olympics," said Robert Bianco of USA Today. "Those are comparable number to what `Survivor' was doing, and we all declared `Survivor' the biggest media thing since bread was sliced."

The network promised Olympic sponsors an overall rating of 16.1, but only managed a 14. One ratings point equals about a million households. That's 35 percent less than what advertisers expected.

"We're not hearing that they're terribly disappointed," said Stacey Lynn Koerner, associate director for broadcast research with TN Media, "because to be honest, they're being guaranteed in the Olympics so they're covered in terms of whatever their goals were in terms of people they wanted to reach."

During the Games, NBC began paying back advertisers in air time by adding roughly two minutes of commercials to its coverage each hour.

NBC has plenty of opportunities to meet expectations in the future. They have bought the broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2008, and some say there are lots of lessons to be learned from Sydney.

"I did not see on NBC a sustained campaign pushing the personalities and the pictures and the lives of the American athletes," Pilson said.

The network failed to capture the feeling of being a spectator at the event, Bianco suggested.

"We didn't get a sense of the crowd," he said. "We didn't get a sense of people rushing into the stadium and the excitement in the stadium. I think that's what they bled out of it."

NBC spent more than $705 million for the Sydney Summer Games, and sold about $900 million in ads. Even with the paybacks, the network says: "NBC will meet its original predictions for a profit."

"We're talking about ratings that are still three times what its competitors are getting, and they're busy winning almost every night," Pilson said.

"I assure you this: If the Olympics were put up for bid tomorrow, ABC, CBS and Fox would jump in and try to buy the rights."

Memo to NBC: How to avoid a Greek tragedy
September 29, 2000
U.S. looks north for Games down under
September 25, 2000

NBC
Sydney 2000 Olympic Games

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