Despite TV viewership for the games in Rio coming in at record lows this summer, online viewership was startlingly high. According to a recent Los Angeles Times article, NBC’s streaming of the 2016 games in Rio came in at 1.86 billion minutes; that’s more than the 2014 winter and 2012 summer games (held in Sochi and London, respectively) combined! (Granted, the Rio games featured over 6,000 hours of online coverage, more than any other sporting event of its kind in history.)
While NBC didn’t hit its broadcast ratings targets, with TV viewership down 25% among the Millennial population alone since the London games, what did they expect?
We’ve collected passively tracked digital data on a sample of visitors to the official NBC Sports site that covered the 2016 games in Rio — including what traffic looked like in the preceding months — all the way up until the middle of the games. This gives us a better picture of who tuned in online and what method they preferred to use.
Using a panel of subjects can be a great way to get a clearer picture in any number of categories, from common age ranges and genders to what devices are being used most frequently to view certain websites.
Will NBC have to shift its focus in advertising and presenting future games in order to keep the public engaged? Everybody likes to tune in to see a winner, but is interest in the games just a passing fad? And lastly, are people at all invested in the events before the opening ceremonies kick off? Let’s find out!
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The Demographics
We filtered our data by US-based panelists, all above 18 years of age, and those who passed the minimum data threshold. With those logistics out of the way, we noted some interesting findings when it comes to the demographic breakdown of our sample that visited NBC’s site for coverage and live streaming of the 2016 games.
Probably the biggest discovery was that the online offerings did in fact take a significant chunk of viewership away from its broadcast counterpart. For instance, the audience aged 65 and older only accounted for 7.5% of the passively tracked subjects, but a full 7.0% of those subjects visited NBC Rio games website. That’s in comparison to 6.4% of the subjects aged 25 to 34 (25.2% of all passively tracked subjects) and 6.2% of the subjects aged 18 to 24 (which made up 15.0%). It’s interesting to note that two of the most digital-savvy age ranges weren’t as engaged with the website as the older demographic was. However, that disparity in generational viewership was consistent on the broadcast side, too.
As for website traffic demographics in terms of gender, tracking from a 10-day sample resulted in 7.4% male viewership as opposed to 5.7% female. From August 5–15, 2016, that percentage difference showed that men were more likely to visit NBC’s official games website than women.
The Timeline
As mentioned above, there’s some curiosity over the reach of Rio games fever. Did avid fans start tracking their favorite athletes months in advance? Did casual fans only check in on podium hopefuls when close to the opening date? The answers to these questions lie in the data pulled regarding the passively tracked visitors to NBC’s official games site.
One of the main findings in terms of web traffic was that visits to the website grew from less than 1% in the months leading up to August 2016 to 6.6% in August itself. That’s a big leap, and one that can definitely be attributed to the fact that August is the month when the Rio games got into full swing. We can even see the steady rise of interest in the months prior to August: 0.2% in May, 0.3% in June, 0.7% in July, and then surging forward once the games got underway.
The Devices
We broke down the passively tracked data from the NBC games site by device: desktop/laptop, smartphone, or tablet. Interestingly, smartphone and desktop/laptop use had very close results, while tablet trailed behind. Take a look at the graph below for some additional insights:
As you can see, traffic from all devices remained fairly low around May 2016 and held a consistent pace as they tracked towards August. It’s interesting to note the percentage of tablet visitors, represented by the yellow line. They peaked slightly higher throughout, but dropped off significantly towards August as they were overtaken by desktop/laptop and smartphone visitors. This could be attributed to the convenience and portability of smartphones, as well as the stability and screen size of desktop computers, leaving tablets to fall by the wayside — but we’re just speculating here.
The Details in the Data
This data can be used to further tailor sponsorship deals, targeted advertising, and specific marketing campaigns, which are among the biggest commercial opportunities in the realm of live sports broadcasting. Whether it’s the Rio games or any other big sporting event, the data can hold all the details – and the findings can make all the difference when it comes to marketing success.
Mining this data can be useful for future games, allowing media companies like NBC – who hold the American broadcast rights to the games through 2032 – to better tailor their coverage and advertising to match with the preferences of the general audience, as well as specific demographics.
In the Times article, NBC Universal Chief Executive Steve Burke says that their contract will allow them to change the way the games are presented if a significant change is reflected in viewership. Are we there yet? We think so. How about you?
Contributed By: Becky Wu, Ph.D. Senior Executive Vice President
Becky Wu joined Luth Research in 2001 and brings unique perspectives in a wide array of research practices, particularly in the areas of digital tracking for advertising effectiveness, new product development, media measurement, and branding and marketing strategies. Becky has worked with companies including LG Mobile Communication, Cox Communications, Comcast Cable Communications, Cricket Communications, HSBC, Disney Digital Publishing, and ProFlowers.