TV ratings for Beijing opening ceremony fall to record low numbers in the U.S.

American television network NBC said 16 million viewers watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics. Unfortunately, for them, that number represents a record low for an Olympic opening ceremony.

By comparison, 28.3 million people watched the PyeongChang opening ceremony four years ago. That’s almost double the viewers for Beijing. The numbers from PyeongChang are a slight decrease from Sochi in 2014.

Although traditionally the Winter Olympics fare worse in drawing viewers when compared to the Summer Olympics, NBC’s broadcast of the Tokyo 2020 opening ceremony last summer drew just 17 million viewers, the smallest U.S. television audience for the Olympics in 33 years.

The Beijing 2022 Games are occurring just six months after the end of the Tokyo 2020 Games which were postponed a year due to the pandemic. The primetime television audience for Tokyo dropped more than 40 percent in comparison with the Rio 2016 Games.

NBC faces several challenges with the Beijing Games including a 13-hour time difference between Beijing and New York, no foreign fans in attendance due to the pandemic, no National Hockey League players competing, a diplomatic boycott by the U.S. and several calls by various groups for people to boycott watching the Games due to China’s human rights abuses.

The network plans to air 2,800 hours of coverage of the Beijing Games across multiple platforms. The Beijing Games will be NBC’s 12th consecutive Olympic Games and sixth straight Winter Games.