New York area Hispanic TV viewers are showing little interest in the Olympics, not only on NBC O&O WNBC but also on co-owned Spanish-language Telemundo affiliate WNJU.

Viewing of Spanish-language competitor, Univision's WXTV, has shot up in every key audience measure against the Olympics despite not offering any special programming to counter the quadrennial games.

A study of Nielsen Station Index (NSI) and Nielsen Hispanic Station Index (NHSI) Local People Meter (LPM) audience data for New York's TV stations in the time periods when the Summer Olympics are shown on WNBC or WNJU bears this out.

The study compares the audiences for New York's broadcast TV stations during the time periods for Olympic primetime broadcasts on WNBC and daytime broadcasts on WNJU (as defined by the two NBC-owned stations) with their audiences in comparable time periods on year ago during the August 2007 survey period.

According to the study, the Olympics failed to dent WXTV's lead among New York area Hispanic TV viewers.  In fact, the Olympics may have contributed to WXTV's across-the-board audience gains compared to comparable time periods a year ago.

For example, 268,000 total viewers watched WXTV instead of the prime time Summer Olympics Aug. 9 through 14 on an average quarter hour (AQH) basis. For the comparable time period in the August 2007 survey 204,000 watched WXTV, representing a 31 percent gain for WXTV year to year according to NSI figures. Among Hispanic viewers (NHSI), WXTV was No. 1 with 255,000 viewers vs. 235,000 a year ago, a 9 percent increase.

Against the daytime Olympic broadcasts on WNJU (Aug. 11-14), WXTV attracted 124,000 viewers on average according to NSI, up 25 percent from 99,000 a year ago.  WNJU's Olympics gets an average of 15,000 viewers, down 53 percent from 32,000 who watched its regular daytime programming a year ago.

The story is similar among Hispanic viewers, with WXTV up 9 percent year to year from 104,000 to 113,000 according to NHSI while WNJU is down 64 percent from 32,000 to 12,000.

WXTV is far and away No. 1 in each of the time periods studied, according to the NHSI measure of Hispanic TV viewing.

Among Hispanics 18-49, WXTV gets 127,000 viewers on average against WNBC's prime time Olympics. That's up 11 percent from the 114,000 who watched it in the comparable time period a year ago.

Against the daytime Olympics on WNJU, WXTV attracts 58,000 Hispanic viewers 18-49, up 32 percent from a year ago, while WNJU's Olympics get only 7,000 viewers, down 42 percent from the 12,000 who watched its regular daytime programming a year ago.

In the 25-54 demographic, WXTV easily wins the NHSI prime time race with 126,000 Hispanic viewers, up 13 percent from 112,000 a year ago. According to Nielsen, only 96,000 Hispanics 25-54 watched primetime Olympics on WNBC.

Against the daytime Olympics on WNJU, WXTV gets 57,000 Hispanic viewers 25-54, up 16 percent from 49,000 a year ago, while only 8,000 such viewers tuned to WNJU's daytime Olympic broadcasts in Spanish, a drop of 43 percent from the 14,000 who watched its regular programming a year ago.