--- title: The Rio Olympics Have Fewer Ads Than Past Games description: Despite complaints about too many commercials, this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro feature fewer commercials than other Games. authors: - name: Kerry Close url: https://money.com/author/kerry-close/ at_money_since: 2016 articles: 182 covers: - Business - Banking - Career Advice - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://x.com/kerryclose former_staff: true published: '2016-08-09T13:12:22.000Z' modified: '2016-08-09T13:12:22.000Z' section: Business tags: - Advertising - pubdesk word_count: 311 canonical: https://money.com/2016-rio-olympics-ads-nbc/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Opening Ceremony 2016 Olympic Games - Olympics: Day 0](https://img.money.com/2016/08/gettyimages-586403534.jpg) *Athletes and artists are seen during The 2016 Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony at Maracana Stadium on August 5, 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.* During the opening ceremony of the [2016 Olympic Games in Rio](https://money.com/watch-olympics-rio-games-opening-ceremony-live-2016-online/?iid=sr-link3) on Friday, viewers took to social media to complain about the high volume of commercials that interrupted the event. However, it turns out they were actually subjected to fewer ads than they were during previous Olympic Games. This year's [opening ceremony](https://money.com/watch-olympics-rio-games-opening-ceremony-live-2016-online/?iid=sr-link3) had 19% less ad time than the 2012 Games in London, [the *Wall Street Journal* reported](http://www.wsj.com/articles/viewers-complain-about-too-many-olympics-ads-but-volume-actually-fell-1470687510). This year, there were 54 ad spots during the, amounting to 33 minutes and 45 seconds of commercials, according to statistics from ad tracker Kantar Media. During the opening ceremony in 2012, viewers watched 72 advertisements, amounting to 41 minutes and 30 seconds of commercial time. NBCUniversal, which is broadcasting the Games, says it's found that viewers are less tolerant of ads than they were even four years, when watching TV shows on ad-free streaming services wasn't as popular. It also tried to front-load the commercials toward the beginning of the program to be able to devote more time to the athletes' entrance in the Parade of Nations. ***Read More*: [How Much Is an Olympic Gold Medal Really Worth? Here Are 4 Possible Answers](https://money.com/olympic-medal-worth-value/?iid=sr-link2)** "Given that the commercial load was very similar to London, in fact less than London, we believe that consumption habits, such as binge-watching and ‘marathoning,' have changed perceptions among the viewing audience regarding commercials,” an NBC Sports spokesman said in a statement. Still, the broadcasting company sold $1.2 billion in ads ahead of the Games. Unfortunately, viewership of the opening night was down 35% from the record-high 40.7 million people who tuned into London's opening ceremony in 2012. Among those who did watch, complaints about the ads made up much of the conversation about the Games on social media. Of 81,000 consumer conversations monitored by research firm Networked Insights, nearly 11% centered around complaints about the frequency of advertising. ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/2016-rio-olympics-ads-nbc/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Business", "item": "https://money.com/business/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Advertising", "item": "https://money.com/advertising/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Rio Olympics Have Fewer Ads Than Past Games" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/2016-rio-olympics-ads-nbc/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/2016-rio-olympics-ads-nbc/", "name": "The Rio Olympics Have Fewer Ads Than Past Games", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2016-08-09T13:12:22.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/2016-rio-olympics-ads-nbc/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/2016-rio-olympics-ads-nbc/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2016-08-09T13:12:22.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Rio Olympics Have Fewer Ads Than Past Games", "articleSection": "Business", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2016/08/gettyimages-586403534.jpg", "width": 5288, "height": 3526, "caption": "Opening Ceremony 2016 Olympic Games - Olympics: Day 0" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Kerry Close", "url": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/kerry-close/#author", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/kerryclose" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2016-08-09T13:12:22.000Z", "description": "Despite complaints about too many commercials, this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro feature fewer commercials than other Games.", "abstract": "Despite complaints about too many commercials, this year's Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro feature fewer commercials than other Games.", "@id": "https://money.com/2016-rio-olympics-ads-nbc/", "inLanguage": "en-US", "dateModified": "2016-08-09T13:12:22.000Z", "wordCount": 311, "keywords": [ "Advertising", "pubdesk" ], "about": [ { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Business", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Business" ] }, { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Advertising", "sameAs": [ "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advertising" ] } ] } ] } ```