The way we watch TV is changing, and that fact was glaringly apparent at this year’s Winter Olympics, which went down in history as the lowest-rated Games ever.
One-time figure skating gold medalist and current commentator Scott Hamilton joined Cheddar to discuss the numbers.
“How they’re measuring viewership is different now,” he told Cheddar Tuesday. “How do we know how many people are actually watching and being impacted by the Olympics? If it’s a second screen, if it’s internet viewing, it’s different.”
Ratings for the 2018 PyeongChang OIympics were down more than seven percent from the 2014 Sochi Games, according to [one report](http://tvbythenumbers.zap2it.com/more-tv-news/2018-winter-olympics-ratings-are-down-but-nbc-is-still-happy/). The events averaged just over 22 million viewers this year, versus more than 23 million last time.
But Hamilton, who was relegated from NBC’s primetime figure skating coverage to its Sports Network’s “Olympic Ice” show, says the network was happy with the viewership overall.
“From where I was, and I was there in PyeongChang, they were happy,” he told Cheddar during the interview. “In the show that I did, the ratings for that particular time were quintuple what they received before.”
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/living-a-life-of-gold).
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Jan. 8, 2018.
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Will “wiill” Sims, in-game leader of the NobleGG team that recently qualified for the NPL preseason, started gaming as a League of Legends player in 2012. But his League of Legends skills didn’t foreshadow his later esports success. Sims talked with Cheddar Sports about his unlikely path from casual gamer to PUBG pro.
It's no secret that much of the popularity of Epic Games' smash hit Fortnite comes from its status as a free-to-play game. Now, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter says two other surprising titles may make the switch: Overwatch and Call of Duty.
It's become par for the course for Epic Games to release game-changing items in Fortnite just before tournaments. Ghost Gaming's Kayuun shares his worries for what that means for competitive Fortnite.
In a sign of how attitudes around gambling have changed as laws around it have softened, the NFL announced its first-ever partnership with a gambling company, naming Caesars as the league's official casino sponsor. Chris Holdren, chief marketing officer for Caesars, told Cheddar that the sponsorship represents the beginning of a relationship that could eventually become one where the NFL is directly endorsing sports betting.
Bull riding isn't just for the rodeo, anymore. It's coming to a major city near you ー and streaming online ー thanks largely to the efforts of Colorado-based Professional Bull Riders (PBR). And PBR CEO Sean Gleason told Cheddarthe organization has plenty more tricks up its sleeve to keep its momentum going.
The markets opened up sharply higher on Friday after Thursday's big sell-off. The turnaround was due in large part to investor optimism over the upcoming U.S.-China trade talks but also the December jobs report. The U.S. economy added 314,000 jobs last month, topping the 184,000 jobs expected. Plus, Professional Bull Riders CEO Sean Gleason and bull rider Tanner Bryne stopped by to chat about growing bull riding in the U.S. in an ever-changing media landscape.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Friday, Jan. 4, 2019.
Fitness and beauty booking tool Mindbody is planning to make a play for the next big thing in wellness ー on-demand video, CEO Rick Stollmeyer told Cheddar on Thursday. "You can expect us to be playing in that space because we think that the on-demand and streaming video revolution hitting the fitness space is a big breakthrough," Stollmeyer said.
