Unlike such macho sports events as the Super Bowl, the prime-time Winter Olympics TV audience was mostly female — an estimated 56 percent, according to Neilsen researchers, based on data through Feb. 21, with 44 percent male, almost flipping the Super Bowl stats of 46 to 54 percent. Mobile advertisers should take notice.
Neilsen’s detailed look at who was watching the 2010 Winter Olympics reveals:
• Olympics ratings are highest among older viewers. Ratings among teenagers are 57 percent lower than the national average for this year’s prime-time Olympics broadcasts. Ratings among the 18-49 age group are 20 percent lower than the national average, while ratings among those 55 and older are 82 percent higher.
• Olympics viewing among ethnic minorities is much lower than it is for the population as a whole. Hispanic and African-American viewers each watched 74 percent below the national average, with Asian viewers 15 percent below the national average.
• The Olympics are more widely viewed in the West Central region of the United States than any other part of the country, 24 percent higher than the national average and lowest in the Southwest, at 28 percent lower than the national average.
