NBC saw a mixed bag for its Olympic TV ratings. And while the Peacock has to be pleased about the numbers for NBCSN, its primetime ratings saw significant drops starting at the end of its first week of coverage.

After a promising start in which NBC averaged 31.7 million viewers for the Opening Ceremony and another 25.1 million for Day 1 of the XXII Winter Olympic Games, the viewership fell steadily and so did the ratings. They fell to the point where on some nights, ratings were below the levels of the 2006 Games in Turin which were the last European Olympics. NBC compared 2014's ratings to 2006 rather than the Vancouver Games as they were mostly live. 

But even with this comparison, NBC found ratings and viewership falling steadily to the point where not only fell below Vancouver levels, but also Turin's numbers.

Overall, thanks to the first nights of competition, Sochi did beat out Turin's average, but just barely. From the Opening Ceremony to the Closing Ceremony, a total of 17 nights, NBC averaged 21.4 million viewers a night, but again, that figure was helped by the first two primetime broadcasts. The average nighly rating was 12.3 with a 20 share. Vancouver's average numbers were 13.8/23 and 24.4 million. Turin saw a nightly average of 12.2/19 and 20.2 million.

So why were these games not as popular as Vancouver? One, the time difference. Unlike Vancouver when NBC aired live figure skating, speed skating, bobsled, skeleton and luge, the network did not have that luxury with Sochi. By the time NBC aired events in primetime, in some cases, they had occured as many as 17 hours previous.

In addition, NBC chose to air more live events during the day in Sochi on its cable networks than in Vancouver and Turin. For instance, there was live figure skating, a first for the Peacock. NBCSN's 3 a.m. to 3 p.m. ET block included some sports that were once held for primetime, cross-country skiing, speed skating, biathlon and others.

However, NBC can hang its hat that Olympics primetime dominated the competition. It outrated ABC, CBS and Fox by wide margins in all 18 nights that the Games aired (remember that the Olympics had an extra day of competition this year) and took the coveted 18-49 demographic by a whopping 51% over the other networks.

And of course, everything was available online, something that was not done in previous Winter Olympics.

One cannot count out how Team USA did as compared to 2010 when it won the medal count. In Vancouver, the United States won 37 medals including 9 gold. In 2014, the USA took home the same of amount of golds, but 28 total medals. And previous medal winners like Shaun White and Shani Davis failed to win this year plus the injury to 2010 women's alpine skiing downhill gold medalist Lindsey Vonn did not help NBC either.

Also, when the USA men's hockey team lost to Canada last Friday, a big promotional push that NBC could have used for Sunday morning's gold medal game went out the window. Instead, it seemed that by the time of the final weekend of Sochi, Americans were tired of the Olympics.

Late night is where NBC beat both Vancouver and Turin, averaging 5.6 million viewers outdistancing Vancouver by 17% and Turin by 12%.

NBC's live broadcast of the women's hockey gold medal game between USA and Canada did register 4.9 million viewers from 12-3 p.m. ET/9 a.m.-noon PT and that ranks as the most-watched hockey game of the Sochi games.

NBCSN averaged 1.6 million viewers for its coverage which was counted from 6 a.m.-3 p.m. ET. It had 10 of its best weekday viewership averages ever thanks to the 2014 Games and the USA-Russia men's hockey game on February 15 is now the most-watched hockey game on the network.

Surprisingly, it was men's ski jumping on Sunday, February 8 that became the most-watched event on NBCSN averaging 5.5 million viewers. The previous highs were team figure skating the previous day with 4.9 million viewers. and the 2012 Olympics women's soccer game between USA and Canada with 4.4 million viewers.

So the 2014 Winter Olympics are history and now we look ahead to PyeongChang, South Korea in 2018, NBC is already anticipating the 2016 Summer Games in Rio where it can plan for plenty of events live and won't have to worry about delaying results in primetime.

[NBC]

About Ken Fang

Ken has been covering the sports media in earnest at his own site, Fang's Bites since May 2007 and at Awful Announcing since March 2013.

He provides a unique perspective having been an award-winning radio news reporter in Providence and having worked in local television.

Fang celebrates the four Boston Red Sox World Championships in the 21st Century, but continues to be a long-suffering Cleveland Browns fan.