An average of 12.3 million nightly viewers per day have watched the Winter Olympics on Comcast Corp.’s NBCUniversal TV and streaming channels through Feb. 8. That compares with about 23 million viewers at the same point for the 2018 games in PyeongChang, South Korea, according to an NBC spokesman.

NBC anticipated about 40% fewer viewers than four years ago and cut its ad rates by a similar amount, according to people familiar with the matter. The network was trying to avoid what happened during the Tokyo games last summer, when the ratings fell below what it had guaranteed. That hurt NBC’s potential revenue because the broadcaster had to give additional commercial time to advertisers to make up for the shortfall…

NBC is hoping to make up for lower ad rates by airing the games on more platforms than in 2018, including TikTok and Peacock, its streaming service. That has boosted the amount of commercial spots the company can sell. As a result, NBC could lessen any potential financial hit from the ratings decline.