London Calling: NBC Scores With the Queen's Opening Olympic Jump - Don Seaman

The London 2012 Olympic Games opened fast straight out of the gate answering the challenge of the Beijing Games of 2008 with a worldwide celebration and a Broadwayworthy English history lesson Between the dozens of Mary Poppinses James Bond and Queen Elizabeth all dropping in from above Rowan Atkinson hamming it up from within a symphony orchestra and Paul McCartney leading a sing along to quotHey Judequot the only way it could39ve been more British would have been for Dr Who39s Daleks to light the Olympic flame with teasoaked dead parrots while silly walking around the Tardis all to the Benny Hill themeBut we Americans tend not just to be Anglophiles we also love this Olympic spectacle Nationally 407 million of us watched the Opening Ceremonies all of which came from watching on a traditional television set NBC made the decision not to live stream the opening coverage nor the closing ceremonies as the festivities are seen as an entertainment event and not an athletic one Once the coverage becomes resultsdriven NBC will broadcast coverage of their games across all of their available platforms including streaming them onlineAs usual the spotlight events such as gymnastics swimming beach volleyball and track and field as well as the team sports like basketball and women39s soccer will be telecast on NBC39s premium platform amp8212 Broadcast primetime TVThe opening gala certainly resonated with viewers across the country While the national meteredmarket household rating of 230 made it the best nonUS Opening Ceremonies coverage ever yes even topping the vaunted Beijing Games39 215 the result was exceeded in many local markets San Diego delivered the highest household rating of any local DMA at 278 followed by Washington DC and West Palm Beach with a 268 followed closely by Salt Lake City 266 and Denver 264 In fact each of the Top 20 ranked markets delivered a higher household rating than the national averageThe competition amp8211 both on the field and on screen amp8211 will come as the Games begin in earnest Just as the host nation often gets a measurable bump in the medal count statistically hosting will result in an average gain of 13 medals over the course of the Games the TVB will be tracking to see if there is a quotratings bumpquot for those DMAs with hometown athletesparticipating in the televised eventThus far there are only preliminary ratings available for the first night of competition with very few medals on the line amp8211 and no direct athleteratings correlation Former Olympic market Salt Lake City led the local primetime household ratings race with a 239 followed by a 228 in San Diego and a 224 in Kansas City whose viewers may still be caught up in athletic fever after recently hosting the MLB AllStar Game The first night of primetime competition delivered a 158 meteredmarket average rating overallMany have speculated that the ratings for the London Games will fall short of the peaks of the Beijing Games in 2008 But if the ratings for the Opening Ceremonies are any indication these Games will set a new World39s Record for Olympic viewing by the time the last Union Jack parachute dims London39s Olympic FlameDon Seaman joined the TVB in January 2012 as Manager of Marketing Communications where he is responsible for promoting and raising awareness of the TVB and of Local Broadcast Televisionamp8217s value propositions within the traditional and digital media industries Don can be reached at dontvborgRead all Don39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Local MattersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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London Calling: NBC Scores With the Queen's Opening Olympic Jump - Don Seaman

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London Calling: NBC Scores With the Queen's Opening Olympic Jump - Don Seaman

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