STAMFORD, CONN.— Feb. 21, 2014’s authenticated live stream of the Olympic men’s ice hockey semifinal between the United States and Canada, which Team Canada won 1-0, generated 2,122,447 unique users— the most ever for any NBC Sports digital stream. This is believed to be the largest “TV Everywhere” authenticated streaming audience in U.S. history.
Friday marked the third consecutive day with a record-setting live streaming performance for NBC Sports Digital; Thursday’s U.S.-Canada women’s gold medal game was the previous most streamed authenticated game in the history of NBC Sports Digital and most-streamed Olympics event ever (1.2 million unique users on NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports Live Extra app); Wednesday’s U.S.-Czech Republic men’s quarterfinal hockey game was also previously the most-streamed Olympic event ever (798,337 uniques).
They continued to live stream events with wide interest over the final weekend of the Winter Games, including Team USA’s bronze medal men’s hockey game vs. Finland, the Canada-Sweden gold medal men’s hockey game and the Winter Games Closing Ceremony.
On the traditional side, Thursday’s thrilling women’s gold medal hockey game between the United States and Canada averaged 4.9 million viewers on NBC to rank as the most-watched hockey game in the U.S., excluding Stanley Cup Finals, since the 2010 Vancouver Olympics men’s gold medal game, according to live plus same day fast national data released today by The Nielsen Company.
In addition, the Team USA-Canada game is the most-watched women’s gold medal game since the final between the same two countries at the 2002 Salt Lake City Games. The Friday telecast nearly doubled the 2.5 million viewers for the last women’s gold medal game, also a U.S.-Canada matchup, at the 2010 Vancouver Games.
Thursday night’s primetime Olympics on NBC (8-11:19 p.m.) averaged 20.3 million viewers and a 12.2 household rating/20 share. The comparable second Thursdays of the past two Winter Olympics averaged 22.9 million viewers with a 13.6 household rating/23 share for the 2010 Vancouver Games and 25.7 million viewers with a 15.8 household rating/24 share for the 2006 Torino Games.
NBCSN posted 1.2 million viewers for Thursday from 8 a.m.-3 p.m. coverage — up 32 percent from the comparable day of the 2012 London Games. In 13 days of live coverage, NBCSN has posted the nine most-watched weekday daytimes in NBCSN history and the four most-watched weekend daytimes in the network’s history.
Top 10 Metered Markets for Thursday’s NBC Primetime Coverage:
1. Minneapolis
21.1/34
2. Kansas City
18.7/30
3. Salt Lake City
18.6/35
4. Denver
18.5/31
5. Indianapolis
17.9/30
6. Portland
16.8/30
7. Milwaukee
16.7/27
T8. Albuquerque
16.6/27
T8. St. Louis
16.6/26
10. Pittsburgh
16.3/25
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