Olympic ratings up for NBC

NEW YORK — Gyms worldwide were dark in anticipation of the Olympic gymnastics competition, NBC’s Al Trautwig said this week in a dramatic introduction — then the cameras pulled back to reveal row after row of empty seats in Athens.

Hype gone out of control? An embarrassment for NBC?

Hardly.

In the only arena that matters to NBC — living rooms across the United States — that Sunday night of gymnastics was a hit. It reversed an ominous trend; the first two nights in Athens, prime-time ratings were below the levels of Sydney in 2000.

Monday night was even better. The Michael Phelps-Ian Thorpe swimming showdown and men’s gymnastics final drew 26.9 million viewers, nearly 6 million above the comparable day in Sydney, according to Nielsen Media Research.

“We’re running well ahead of our internal estimates and well ahead of Sydney,” NBC Universal chairman Bob Wright said Tuesday. “This makes this particular Olympics the most highly viewed outside the U.S. of all time.”

More importantly, he said, “I don’t know of any advertiser with whom we have an agreement on audience where we are running behind.”

NBC has sold an estimated $1 billion in ads for the Athens Games and expects to make about $50 million in profits. If the network doesn’t meet the ratings targets given to advertisers, sponsors are due givebacks and it cuts into those profits.

Although Sydney was characterized as a disappointment, it would be a major accomplishment for NBC to top its ratings four years later, said Steve Sternberg, analyst for the ad-buying firm Magna Global. He said the results are even more impressive because the average home has more options today — 100 channels compared to 60 four years ago.

“I think NBC should be pretty happy right now,” he said. “Call me in a couple of days. It might be a different story.”

NBC’s grand experiment this August is to flood its affiliated channels — CNBC, MSNBC, USA, Bravo and Telemundo — with Olympic programming. They’re showing 1,210 hours of coverage on the six networks altogether.

Over the weekend, an estimated 23 million people checked out at least some of the games on cable. NBC was concerned the cable coverage might cut into NBC’s prime-time viewership, Wright said, and so far it has had little impact.

Critically speaking, the broadcast and cable Olympics seem to exist in parallel universes.

NBC gears much of its prime-time to sports that women can enjoy — track and field, water sports and every last tumble that a gymnast makes. Boxing takes up three hours each evening on cable; you won’t see a single punch on the network.

The approach was infuriating in past years when fans of sports dubbed not ready for prime-time had no alternative. Now, they do.

The only thing missing is the sense of random discovery; you have to seek out the oddball sports out — they won’t find you.

Seeing a volleyball match unfold in front of you — instead of in a five-minute package of highlights — is fun, although NBC is still prone to some abrupt cuts on events that aren’t carried live.

In the early days, the swimming broadcast team of Dan Hicks and Rowdy Gaines has been NBC’s most impressive, offering the right combination of enthusiasm and information.

“He just took off the headphones,” Hicks said as Phelps approached the pool before Monday’s race. “We understand the rapper of choice for these games is Eminem.”