THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 5 : NBC’s Prime-Time Ratings for Games Are Much Lower Than Expected

For the first four days of the Seoul Olympics--Friday through Monday--NBC averaged a national Nielsen rating of 16.4 for its prime-time coverage, which is considerably lower than expected.

NBC had projected that it would average about a 21.2 prime-time rating for Seoul.

For the 1984 Los Angeles Games, ABC averaged a 23.2 during prime time.

Ratings have been generally lower since last year, when the networks began using people meters, which require Nielsen viewers to manually punch in the programs they watch. But NBC is still concerned.

“Yes, we’re concerned,” network spokesman Kevin Monaghan said. “But we think the numbers will go up.”

NBC received a 15.2 national rating for the opening ceremony, which is 36% lower than the 23.9 rating ABC got for the opening ceremony in 1984.

The 15.2 national rating was more than 3 points lower than the overnight average, which was released earlier. Overnight ratings come from the major cities. “I guess the Olympics don’t play well in Podunk,” one NBC staffer said.

On Saturday night, the national rating was 15.6 with a 30% share. Sunday the numbers were 17.7 and 30, and they dipped to 16.8 and 29 Monday night.

One rating point represents 1% of the nation’s 88.6 million television homes. A share represents 1% of the homes where television is being watched.