The Olympic games in Rio have set a live streaming record. According to Comcast (NASDAQ:CMCSA) and NBCUniversal, on Wednesday, NBC Olympics' live streaming for Rio 2016 topped 1.05 billion minutes, the first time the threshold has been crossed for an Olympics. The 1.05 billion minutes of live streaming via NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app is up 232% from the equivalent day in the London Olympics in 2012. The milestone comes one day after NBCOlympics' live streaming for the Rio Olympics surpassed the entire London Games.
The Total Audience Delivery (TAD) for Wednesday's primetime coverage averaged 28.6 million viewers. NBC Olympics' TAD measures broader Rio Olympics consumption by calculating average minute viewing across broadcast, cable and digital platforms.
The 2016 Rio Olympics is the first in U.S. media history with primetime Olympic coverage on channels other than the primary broadcast network. It is also the first time that the broadcast network coverage, including primetime, has been streamed simultaneously on digital platforms.
Through the first five nights of competition, TAD for Rio 2016 was down a bit from the 2012 London Olympics, with an average of 30.3 million daily primetime viewers this year vs. 33.16 million in 2012. The 2012 London Olympics had no simultaneous live streaming and no competing primetime Olympic cable coverage.