Front Office Football Central - View Single Post - The 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver/Whistler

JonInMiddleGA · 03-01-2010, 01:43 PM

Might be of some interest to a few folks here, a detailed breakdown of various stats from the 57+ hours of primetime coverage by NBC

Winter Olympics - Events & Commercial Pods, and What Nielsen Didn't Measure - The Sternberg Report

Among the highlights

There were 15 hours, 15 minutes of commercials (national and local) and promos, or 27% of the entire Winter Olympics broadcast. This is the same percentage as primetime in general. However, about 70% of the typical primetime series is programming. But during the Winter Olympics, only 58% was devoted to actual event coverage. The remaining 15% was allocated to profiles, interviews recaps, medal ceremonies, and talking heads.

...

The WInter Olympics has shorter commercial pods than the typical primetime program. That's because the typical primetime series commercial break has either all national commercials or national commercials, followed by promos, and then local commercials. The Olympics mostly breaks the national and local commercials into separate pods.

There were 233 national commercial pods, averaging 2:40 per pod.

There were 94 pods containing only local commercials. All of them started with a network promo. These averaged only 2:01.

There were 37 commercial pods that contained both national and local commercials. These averaged 2:45 and all had a network promo separating the national and local commercials.

By comparison, the average commercial pod in a broadcast primetime series is about 3:10.

This is one reason why research will tend to show greater recall of ads - shorter commercial breaks often have less channel switching.

...

Code:

Following is a ranking of Winter Olympic primetime sports based on air time for each event.  These were also the only sports to have at least one hour of overall air time.

Event 	  Time
Ice Dancing  	3:15:50
Men's Figure Skating 	3:09:50
Men's Short Track 	3:00:20
Figure Skating Pairs 	2:46:55
Ladies Figure Skating 	2:29:20
Women's Alpine Skiing 	2:24:35
Men's Alpine Skiing 	2:15:15
Men's Bobsled 	1:34:20
Men's Snowboarding 	1:25:55
Women's Snowboarding 	1:13:20

03-01-2010, 01:43 PM	#1559
JonInMiddleGA Hall Of Famer Join Date: Nov 2000 Location: Behind Enemy Lines in Athens, GA	Might be of some interest to a few folks here, a detailed breakdown of various stats from the 57+ hours of primetime coverage by NBC Winter Olympics - Events & Commercial Pods, and What Nielsen Didn't Measure - The Sternberg Report Among the highlights There were 15 hours, 15 minutes of commercials (national and local) and promos, or 27% of the entire Winter Olympics broadcast. This is the same percentage as primetime in general. However, about 70% of the typical primetime series is programming. But during the Winter Olympics, only 58% was devoted to actual event coverage. The remaining 15% was allocated to profiles, interviews recaps, medal ceremonies, and talking heads. ... The WInter Olympics has shorter commercial pods than the typical primetime program. That's because the typical primetime series commercial break has either all national commercials or national commercials, followed by promos, and then local commercials. The Olympics mostly breaks the national and local commercials into separate pods. There were 233 national commercial pods, averaging 2:40 per pod. There were 94 pods containing only local commercials. All of them started with a network promo. These averaged only 2:01. There were 37 commercial pods that contained both national and local commercials. These averaged 2:45 and all had a network promo separating the national and local commercials. By comparison, the average commercial pod in a broadcast primetime series is about 3:10. This is one reason why research will tend to show greater recall of ads - shorter commercial breaks often have less channel switching. ... Code: Following is a ranking of Winter Olympic primetime sports based on air time for each event. These were also the only sports to have at least one hour of overall air time. Event Time Ice Dancing 3:15:50 Men's Figure Skating 3:09:50 Men's Short Track 3:00:20 Figure Skating Pairs 2:46:55 Ladies Figure Skating 2:29:20 Women's Alpine Skiing 2:24:35 Men's Alpine Skiing 2:15:15 Men's Bobsled 1:34:20 Men's Snowboarding 1:25:55 Women's Snowboarding 1:13:20 __________________ "I lit another cigarette. Unless I specifically inform you to the contrary, I am always lighting another cigarette." - from a novel by Martin Amis Last edited by JonInMiddleGA : 03-01-2010 at 01:44 PM.