The Games are a valuable franchise for NBC Universal, which has committed $5.7 billion for the Olympic television rights from 2000 to 2012, including $613 million for the rights to carry the Turin Games.

　　The Olympics define us, said Randy Falco, the president and chief operating officer of the NBC Universal Television Group.

　　Through six nights, NBCs average Nielsen rating of a 12.5 was down 24 percent from the 16.4 that CBS recorded during the same period in 1998 for the Winter Games in Nagano, Japan. That drop is in line with the ratings slide for other major sports and entertainment events in the same time span.

　　It is also 36 percent lower than the rating for the Salt Lake Games four years ago, but a domestic Olympics is always a magnet for viewers.

　　In previous Olympics, NBC had lost a total of four half-hours to its competitors, and had never lost a night to any network.

　　NBC has promised its advertisers a final rating in Turin between 12 and 14; if the rating is lower, NBC will have to provide them with free commercial time.

　　Mr. Falco is unusually calm about the competitive ardor of Fox and ABC, which are showing original episodes from seven of this seasons top 10-rated prime-time shows against the Olympics. In the past, rival networks have shied from such gamesmanship, but not now, during the February sweeps, with NBC having fallen from the prime-time throne.

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