The Olympics are golden for local television

Do the games provide a lesson for our political leaders?

If you’ve been watching a lot of Olympics coverage the past two weeks, you’re not alone. NBC reports ratings are up 79% over the Tokyo games in 2021. And that’s good news for local TV newsrooms, particularly NBC affiliates in Iowa and around the country.

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There are strong story lines this year, from the return of Simone Biles to the Caitlin Clark-less women’s basketball team. The six-hour time difference in Paris is a lot more manageable than the 13-hour time difference in Tokyo. We can watch important matches live during the day if we want or settle into the recap during NBC’s primetime coverage.

I don’t quite get the blanket coverage of Snoop Dogg but the beauty shots of the Eiffel Tower, Versailles and the Seine likely appeal to Americans because a lot more of them have been to Paris than to Tokyo.

With TV audiences fragmented among hundreds of channels and streaming options, there are only a few events which continue to draw significant ratings for broadcast networks. The Super Bowl, the Olympics and the Oscars still draw large audiences to network TV and their affiliated stations.

Every NBC affiliate in the country is enjoying a bonanza of way more eyeballs than would typically watch their station during a summer month like July. And that presents a lot of benefits.

A huge opportunity

NBC primetime Olympics coverage leads right into the late local news, giving those newscasts strong “audience flow”. Lead-in is important because a lot of viewers wanting news at 10:00 pm will just stay on the channel they’ve been watching rather than switch to the channel they might normally watch. Or those viewers might stay to watch a story they saw the local station promote during Olympics coverage. And if some of those viewers aren’t normally fans of that station, they might be exposed for the first time to an anchor they like and come back more often. It’s a huge recruitment opportunity for local stations. They always put their best foot forward during the Olympics.

All those eyeballs on the late local news can benefit the next morning, too. Viewers might watch the 10pm news, turn off the TV and head to bed. But when they get up in the morning and turn the TV back on, that NBC affiliate is the first thing they see, so it drives viewers to morning news, too.

All the Olympics coverage gives local stations two other great opportunities – sales and promotion.

Bigger ratings mean big ad revenue

Commercial time during the Olympics will have both national ad space the networks sell, as well as local ad availabilities for the local station to sell. Those spots go for big money because of the higher ratings, so it’s a chance to capture a lot of revenue. And when station owners make money, they can invest that back into the newsroom by hiring more journalists or upgrading equipment. That’s a good thing for local news.

And the station will also invest some of that local ad inventory into promoting itself. The promotion department will create new, high-end promotions to run during the Olympics that showcase the benefits of their news operation.

Of course, the Olympics and the Super Bowl television rights cost a lot of money. NBC paid $7.6 billion to broadcast the Olympics from 2014 through 2032. NBC will pass some of those costs on to local stations. But if the Olympics drive ratings and increase revenue, it’s a wise investment.

The world is watching. Is there a lesson here?

My wife and I have watched primetime coverage every night – for the first time in many years. The competition is thrilling. The sportsmanship athletes show – even when they lose – has been a balm during a period of endless political disagreement. Yesterday’s US men’s basketball come-from-behind win over Serbia was one of the best basketball games you could ever watch.

I was on a Zoom call with other writers a few days ago. One was in England, another in The Netherlands. And it was cool to talk over the Olympics with them and realize that there aren’t many events that bring the whole world together in such a peaceful way.

Sports are competitive. Politics is competitive. Maybe there’s a lesson for our political leaders. What average, ordinary citizens want is politicians who try their best, work hard, be gracious in victory and concede defeat with a handshake and a “congratulations.” Naïve, I realize. But am I wrong?

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