Sochi Olympics 2014: Viewers of NBC’s opening coverage down from last winter games

NBC’s primetime Sochi Olympics telecast on Saturday averaged 25.1 million viewers, according to a network release, down four percent from its coverage of the opening Saturday of the 2010 Vancouver games.

NBC, of course, would rather focus on the fact that Saturday’s viewership was an eight percent increase over the opening Saturday of the 2006 Torino Games. Sochi’s household ratings were also up three percent over Torino and held relatively even with Vancouver.

An average of 2.6 million viewers tuned into NBC’s sports affiliate, NBCSN, making it the network’s best daytime viewership ever. Interestingly enough, NBCSN’s opening coverage of the Sochi games nearly doubled that of the opening Saturday of the 2012 London summer games.

NBCSN’s daytime broadcast of the team figure skating competition became the network’s most watched event ever, pulling 4.9 million viewers.

The highest ratings by U.S. city came from Minneapolis, which was followed by Portland, Salt Lake City, Denver and Milwaukee.

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