151 Million Viewers Have Tuned into Sochi Olympics on NBC So Far

By: Tyler Peterson Feb. 14, 2014

More than half of all American television viewers have watched the 2014 Sochi Winter Games on the networks of NBCUniversal, according to fast cume data provided by The Nielsen Company.

Through Thursday, 150.9 million Americans have watched the 2014 Sochi Olympics on NBCUniversal networks NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, MSNBC and USA. On Thursday, NBC aired its first-ever Winter Olympics telecast prior to the Friday night Opening Ceremony. Saturday was the first full day of coverage, which included live competition on NBCSN and MSNBC. CNBC and USA began coverage on Monday.

· Last night's Primetime Olympics telecast on NBC (8-11:03 p.m. ET) averaged 22.9 million viewers, up 18% from the corresponding Thursday of the 2006 Torino Games (19.4 million) and marking the seventh consecutive night - every night beginning with the Opening Ceremony -- that NBC's Primetime P2+ viewership has topped viewership of the last European Winter Olympics in Torino, according to live plus same day fast national data released today by The Nielsen Company.

· NBC's Thursday night 13.4 household rating/21 share topped the comparable night for Torino by 13% (11.9/19) - marking the seventh consecutive night that Sochi coverage beat (six times) or tied (once) Torino in household rating. NBC's live (ET/CT) coverage of the comparable Thursday of the 2010 Vancouver Games posted a 14.5 household rating/24 share and averaged 24.8 million viewers.

· NBCSN continued its record-breaking streak on Thursday - marking the sixth consecutive day the network set a viewership milestone. NBCSN averaged a weekday best-ever 1.4 million viewers for yesterday's 6 am-3 pm ET time period which featured the U.S. men's hockey team's Sochi debut and men's figure skating. Earlier in the week, NBCSN set daily weekday viewership marks for its live Monday through Wednesday coverage and weekend daytime records for its Saturday and Sunday telecasts.

· On NBC Sports Live Extra, the U.S. men's hockey team's 7-1 victory against Slovakia on Thursday accounted for 6.9 million minutes of live streaming - a record for a TV Everywhere/authenticated hockey game.

· NBC's Olympics late night show is averaging 6.9 million viewers for its six telecasts through Thursday - marking the most-watched Winter Olympics late night show at this point in 22 years (1992 Albertville Games). Viewership for the Sochi late night show is up 38% over Vancouver and 35% over Torino.

· Wednesday night's Primetime Olympics telecast on NBC (8-11:10 p.m. ET) averaged 20.8 million viewers and a 12.1 household rating/19 share - up 16% and 7% respectively from the last European Winter Olympics (17.9 million with 11.3/18 for Torino in 2006). The corresponding Wednesday coverage of the 2010 Vancouver Games -- which featured Lindsey Vonn, Shaun White, and Shani Davis winning gold medals and a Winter Olympics-record six medals for the U.S. team - averaged 29.4 million viewers with a 16.7 HH rating/27 share.