Friday, September 22, 2000
Tristate turns on Olympic TV while the nation tunes out
By John Fay
The Cincinnati Enquirer
While Americans from California to New York are turning away from the Olympics in record numbers, the ratings in Cincinnati have bucked the trend.
“The numbers here have been huge,” said Mike Hayes, the general sales manager at Channel 5, the local NBC affiliate. “This town loves the Olympics.”
Channel 5 has averaged a 17.5 rating and 29 share for the prime time Olympics telecast from Sydney. Australia. A ratings point represents the percentage of households in the market tuned to the broadcast. The share represent the number of sets in use tuned to the broadcast.
WLWT is getting numbers 8 percent higher than what NBC is doing nationally.
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OUR TV SURVEY
Many Tristaters watching the Olympics aren't happy with the coverage, and others who normally watch the Games have turned them off. Read their comments.
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“We (had more viewers) for the Atlanta Games also,” Mr. Hayes said. “It's a tribute to what people here think of amateur sports.”
Elsewhere, NBC isn't doing so well. The network averaged a 14.6 rating for the first four days of the Games. That's 32 percent off the 21.5 it drew for the Atlanta Games. It's 11 percent below what NBC did in 1992 in Barcelona, which is a more fair comparison because the network had to deal with a big time difference as it has in Sydney.
NBC took a risk at Sydney. Four years ago, the network used the “plausibly live” approach to broadcasting the Atlanta Games. NBC mixed live events with taped and scored some of the highest ratings ever for the Summer Games.
Because of the 15-hour time difference from Eastern Daylight Time to Sydney, NBC decided to air no live events and fill its prime time broadcasts with the most popular sports, even though the results of the events are at times almost a full day old.
Most people know the results before they ever tune in. As a result, many have not tuned in at all.
NBC has also been hampered by the poor performance of the U.S. in the glamour sport of gymnastics.
Things could pick up beginning tonight. Track, another high profile sport, begins. NBC has been touting the story of Marion Jones, who will go for a record five gold medals, since the Games began.
As Channel 5's Mr. Hayes points out, the Olympic numbers are still huge in a 100-channel universe.
Wednesday night, Channel 5's ratings peaked at 24.6 at 9:45. Channel 19, which was showing The Nutty Professor, was the only other local station to hit double figures during prime time, and WXIX peaked at 10.
“If you add up best numbers from other four (local) stations combined, you get a 29,” Hayes said. “We were almost getting that by ourself.”
The number NBC is most worried about is 16.1 rating— that's the number the network promised advertisers. That meant the network began running two extra ads per hour late Wednesday to make up the shortfall. Channel 5 guaranteed local advertises an 18 rating. The 17.5 it has gotten through Wednesday is within the industry standard. Still, viewers are getting 20 national ads, instead of 18, each hour — plus the local ads.
“Even at 20 units, that's at the current network average and below what's often on during prime time,” NBC Sports vice president Kevin Sullivan said. “The viewer's experience is not affected.”
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