Jacobs Media: The Olympics Ratings Paradox And What It Means To Radio

Fred Jacobs

JACOBS MEDIA Pres. FRED JACOBS writes, "Did you watch the TOKYO OLYMPICS during its two-week run? Conventional wisdom is that the 2020 games – that got delayed a year due to COVID – were a dumpster fire, a train wreck, and a hot mess combined. The pandemic forced the IOC to reschedule the games, but that was just the start. Low vaccine rates in JAPAN, coupled with the rise of the Delta variant, impacted the health of many athletes.  Scores of athletes tested positive, and weren't allowed to participate in the games.

"For health reasons, the decision was made to ban fans from events, so much of the competition took place in empty stadiums. Then there were the athletes that suffered from the stress of the competition and the bright lights, including Simone Biles who came down with a serious case of “the twisties,” forcing her to pull out of several events.

And then there were the weak ratings suffered by NBC-TV. Across the news media, late night TV, and morning radio, the conventional wisdom was that relatively few were watching the games on television."

Read the full blog post here.

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