You Are More Likely to Watch the Olympics if NBC Spoils You, Says Totally Unbiased NBC Study
Hey, internet, quit complaining about NBC's terrible Olympics coverage. According to a new NBC-sponsored study, knowing the outcome of events makes people more likely to watch.
Research company Usamp interviewed a whopping 1,000 people about their Olympics viewing habits. Two-thirds said they watched NBC's primetime coverage even if they know the results already. NBC's chief researcher Alan Wurtzel claims people who had watched events live online watched the primetime broadcasts for 50 percent longer than those who hadn't.
NBC has been streaming events live but airing them in primetime, despite the fact that you basically can't go online without reading results to everything instantly. In fact, 43 percent of the people who watched NBC's broadcasts said they already knew the outcomes.
NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus said that NBC is paying attention to feedback (read: making paper airplanes out of your hate mail), but he wouldn't make any comment on whether the network would keep up the tape delay in future Olympics.
We will continue to innovate our coverage. I won't make a proclamation here about what we are going to do, but be sure we are analyzing everything.
It doesn't really matter, though, because you like being spoiled. You just don't realize it.
[Image via AP]