Turin Games get low ratings

NBC drew 8.9 percent of the U.S. television audience for the Winter Olympics' closing ceremony Sunday, according to preliminary figures that might point to the lowest ratings ever for the Winter Games.

The audience percentage for the NBC show from Turin, Italy, was reported by Nielsen Media Research as a preliminary national rating, which measures almost all the 110.2 million U.S. households with televisions. A final national rating will be available today, Nielsen Media Research said.

Through Saturday, the Winter Games attracted 12.3 percent of national prime-time viewers — 35 percent less than the 2002 Olympics, according to Nielsen. The prime-time low for an entire Winter Olympics was a 13.4 average rating for the 1968 Games in France.

No comparison was available with preliminary national ratings for previous Winter Games, Nielsen said.

In the 56 largest U.S. markets, the Turin closing ceremony was watched in 9.5 percent of homes, compared with 23.3 percent for the same event four years ago in Salt Lake City. The 1998 Winter Games' closing ceremony from Nagano, Japan, drew 12.6 percent of large-market viewers.

NBC, the third most-watched U.S. television network, paid a record $613 million for broadcast rights to this year's Olympics. NBC Sports chairman Dick Ebersol said a week ago that the network would generate a profit of between $50 million and $75 million on the Winter Games.

Prime-time ratings have fallen steadily for most major sports events during the past two decades as cable and satellite television give viewers more options.

China prepares for 2008

TURIN, Italy — With the 2008 Summer Games in China next on the Olympic horizon, there is no sense of panic. Olympic officials and marketing experts dismiss the notion that the product in which NBC has invested billions can no longer compete in the modern American entertainment market.

Though U.S. television ratings plunged this year, media experts say that could turn around in Beijing, which in 2001 was a controversial choice to hold the Olympics because of China's communist government and checkered human-rights record.

Organizers of the Beijing Games figure to counter the glut of programming options and the time difference with rich story lines, a stunning Chinese team and Games of historical significance.

Compiled from Bloomberg News, The Washington Post and The Associated Press