- Court Ruling Could Mean Trouble for TiVo
- Another Music Lawsuit, but with an Unexpected Target
- Will Newspaper Readers Pay For Digital Content?
- Is Google Hurting Book Publishers?
- Supreme Court's Ruling A Blow To Big Media
- The "New" Michael Jackson Fortune
- Hollywood Cashing In On Financial Crisis
- GM Gives Hope To Ad Industry
- "Revenge of the Fallen's" Transforming Effect On Viacom, Hasbro And ...GM?
- Time Warner And Comcast Partner To Save Cable
More Videos
|
CNBC'S MOST SHARED
- 'We're in the Middle of a Crash': Black Swan
- The Rising Mountain of Debt May Be the Next Crisis
- SEC May Reinstate Rules for Short-Selling Stocks
- Latvian Banker Taking Souls as Collateral
- Malaysia PM Speaks to CNBC
- Alaska Governor Sarah Palin Will Resign
- The Worst Expected 2010 State Budget Gaps
- Cuddle Parties Heat Up
- NY City Apartment Sales Down More Than 50%
- Charting Gold & Crude Oil
- Fireworks At Pharma's Market
- Value of Warren Buffett's Annual Gift to Gates Foundation Falls Along With Berkshire's Stock
- Michael Jackson: The Music And The Money
- Five Stock Picks for This Market
- Realities of the New Obama Refis
- Weak Dollar Means Gold at $1,040: Strategist
- Court Ruling Could Mean Trouble for TiVo
- Lance, Please Back Out Of Tour
- TeleMedicine Gets An Apple App Store Facelift
- A Goldman Trading Scandal?
- Top Videos: From the Black Swan to the Bond King
- Property Tax Appeals Take Toll on Governments
- Obama Plan Would Trim Back Financial Powerhouses
- Biden: 'We Misread How Bad The Economy Was'
- Chrysler Names Remaining Directors to New Board
- Car Dealer Determined To Fight Chrysler Over Franchise
- 'Ice Age' Heats Up Worldwide Box Office
- For Banks, Wads of Cash and Loads of Trouble
Text Size 
 |
More than 211 million Americans watched the games -- that's more than 70 percent of the country -- making them the most-watched ever, beating the 209 million viewers who watched the 1996 Atlanta games. (Though it's worth noting there are more TVs out there now.)
And ratings were up, pretty much across the board: 7 percent higher than the 2004 Athens Olympics, while cable ratings were up 30 percent over Athens. This also helped NBC's flagship shows -- Nightly News ratings up 31 percent, Today show up 38 percent -- which I'm sure wil try to hold onto the gains.
It all comes down to the money, and NBC sold over $1 billion in advertising before the games began, selling another 25 million during the games to advertisers thrilled by the frenzy over Michael Phelps and the like, trying to get in on the action.
The real Olympic feat: the unprecedented amount of content posted online and the amount of people who clicked to its site. NBCOlympics.com attracted 50 million unique visitors and 10 million hours of video was watched online. There's no question, this broke all sorts of records for online broadcasting. NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker spoke to CNBC's Erin Burnett Monday, summing up what this Olympic games proves: "Digital content does not cannibalize television."
Zucker says this success will help the network figure out how to lead people to what they want to watch, when they want to want it. And that means not just on TV, but also online and on mobile.
With these strong numbers, when NBC's broadcasting contract for the Olympics expires in 2012, they're going to face some serious competition. Walt Disney's [DIS
Loading...
()
] ESPN and News Corp.'s [NWS
Loading...
()
] Fox both have said once the auction begins next year, they plan to bid for the 2014 Winter Games and the 2016 Summer Games.
The Olympics are clearly a valuable business for General Electric's [GE
Loading...
()
] NBC, but the question is how much it'll be worth paying. And with that over-the-top closing ceremony fresh in my mind, I've got to wonder if anything can live up to this summer's event.
Questions? Comments?
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes