87 MILLION VIEWERS WATCH NBC's SUPER SPORTS SUNDAY

87 MILLION VIEWERS WATCH NBC's SUPER SPORTS SUNDAY

Best Daytona 500 in History: 37 Million Watch Most Viewed & Highest Rated NASCAR Race Ever

164 Million Have Watched the Torino Winter Olympics on NBC Through Sunday Night, Only 2% Behind This Same Point During Salt Lake Games

TORINO, Italy - Feb. 20, 2006 - 87 million total, unduplicated viewers watched NBC Sports on Sunday, which included the highest-rated NASCAR race in history, the Daytona 500 and primetime coverage of the Torino Games, and also featured live afternoon coverage from Torino of the U.S. men's hockey team falling 2-1 to Sweden. NBC's coverage of the "Great American Race" attracted 37 million total, unduplicated viewers and drew a record 11.3 household rating and 23 share, the highest NASCAR rating in history and the most viewed Daytona 500 ever, according to fast national data from Nielsen Media Research.

"This is why the Olympics are so valuable, because they're an amazingly powerful promotional platform," said Randy Falco, President and COO, NBC Universal Television Group. "The Torino Winter Games are drawing more viewers than ever before to our other sports properties, to our cable networks and to our web sites."

HIGHEST NASCAR RATING IN HISTORY: The 11.3/23 makes NBC's only three Daytona 500 broadcasts three of the top four highest rated and most viewed Daytona 500s ever (NBC 2002 and Fox 2005, 10.9; NBC 2004, 10.6). Last year's coverage of the Daytona 500 on Fox drew a 10.9/23 as the sport's two biggest stars, Jeff Gordon and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. dueled to the checkered flag. Yesterday's rating peaked with a 13.6 between 6-6:30 p.m. as Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth traded paint and Johnson took the crown in the "Super Bowl of stock car racing."

"I am thrilled that we were able to give NASCAR this record-breaking rating for the exciting sport of stock car racing," said Dick Ebersol, Chairman, NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

164 MILLION WATCH TORINO OLYMPICS TO DATE: Through Sunday, 164 million viewers have watched the Torino Winter Olympics on the networks of NBC Universal, pacing only two percent behind this same point during the Salt Lake Games (166 million).

NBC DOMINATES PRIMETIME: Last night's coverage of the Torino Winter Olympics on NBC rated a 11.6/18 and delivered an average of 19.2 million viewers (7:00 p.m.-11:45 p.m. ET/PT) as the U.S. ice dancing duo of Tanith Belbin and Ben Agosto climbed into second place going into tonight's gold medal final. NBC once again claimed the night in primetime, outrating ABC for the night by 7 percent in households (10.8) and 7 percent in total viewers (18.1M) and outrating CBS and Fox combined in both households and viewer delivery (CBS, 6.1/9.5 million; Fox, 3.2/5.3 million).

TORINO OLYMPICS ON CABLE REACHES NEARLY 53 MILLION VIEWERS: Through Sunday, coverage of the Torino Games has reached 52.7 million total, unduplicated viewers on the cable networks of NBCU, more than 30 percent higher than the comparable time periods last year (40.4 million).

THE OLYMPICS IN PRIMETIME ON NBC

Sunday Torino to Date through Sun., Feb. 19
HH Rating 11.6/18 12.1/19
A18-49 5.5 6.2
Average Viewers 19.2 20.4
Total Unduplicated 56.4 million 164 million

The networks of NBC Universal, NBC, USA, MSNBC, CNBC, NBC HD and Universal HD is providing more than 418 total hours of coverage - including the most live coverage - across the most platforms of any Winter Olympics in history of the XX Olympic Winter Games from Torino, Italy, Feb. 10-26.