In audience and revenue terms, however, the Rio Olympics look to be a hit. A big one. That's not to say the Olympics will leave the Seven Network swimming in dollars; if nothing else the Games are a costly enterprise, almost without an equal in television rights terms.

But all the signs are there - strong demographic results, record-breaking streaming audiences and comparatively modest costs - to suggest Seven will finish the 17 days of the Games of the XXXI Olympiad with a feather in its cap. And not too much red ink on its copybook.

Alas, it was not always thus. On the 2012 London games, Nine took a financial bath, though the then-CEO Jeff Browne said the network's loss was somewhere to the tune of "less than $20 million". Foxtel, working with a different algorithm, reported better news: their subscriber growth was "modest but positive".

But Nine and Foxtel jointly paid $A120 million for the rights to the 2010 and 2012 games - Sochi in winter, London in summer - and were subsequently forced to split the revenue pie. And if it's any consolation to Nine, US broadcaster NBC also failed to break even on London, for which they paid $US1.18 billion.

For Rio in 2016 and Tokyo in 2020, Seven paid around $170 million. (The gift with purchase: the 2018 winter games in PyeongChang, South Korea, and an option on taking 2022 and 2024.) That's more money in total, but split across three events and all taking from an audience and revenue pie which Seven doesn't have to share.

After a slightly bumpy start - the opening ceremony, screened out of primetime and delivered a slightly smaller audience than preceding opening ceremonies - the buzz has grown and Seven has returned solid ratings. If there is to be a post-mortem, the shortcomings of the host city will feature more prominently than anything seen on TV.

For Seven, the time zone is a key factor. Rio, for example, offers Seven less live-to-prime time than most host cities. And in the global Olympic economy, it is the US network NBC which has the most clout in pushing for host cities which best serve US prime time. The rest of the world, in broadcaster terms, to some extent gets what they're given.

This is also the first Olympics where live streaming, mobile delivery and social media platforms such as Facebook, Youtube, Snapchat and Twitter are a prominent part of the delivery mix, in addition to Seven's three free-to-air channels and radio via Triple M.

Though the numbers themselves can, like most television ratings, be made to serve any master, the simplest breakdown is this: Seven's channels are presently commanding roughly 40 per cent of the free-to-air audience. In demographic terms, it's a little more, particularly with 16- to 39-year-old viewers.

In digital terms, Seven's Rio coverage has also clocked more than 32 million online streams and almost 55 million social video views. Both might sound gimmicky to the analog ear, though they represent a huge slice of a growing digital audience.

But there are structural limitations in play here. Seven has given over almost all of its spectrum - a main channel in high-definition and 7two and 7mate in standard definition - to the Olympics but with three channels seems to come up short, particularly when compared to Foxtel's eight themed channels for London.

The net effect of three channels offering multi-discipline coverage, even when it's shrewdly programmed, is that the hosts risk being reduced to human signposts and the coverage risks falling into the "a bit of everything and all of nothing" trap.

It's a bit like offering a television buffet when the best consumer digital content consumer experiences are now a la carte. If you're a high-end consumer, you're probably missing those eight channels right now.

In public relations terms, however, the headlines have been straightforward enough: Seven wins prime time on primary channels, up 45 per cent on Nine and up 86 per cent on Ten in total viewers, Seven winning in news vs Nine, and Seven's Sunrise winning in breakfast television vs Today. They're loaded with hubris but in television, as on the battlefield, history is written by the victors.

Seven has taken the strategic decision to keep its Sunrise franchise front and centre, even if it occupies prime real estate: the clock window in which live events would be streaming in from the host broadcaster in Rio. There's rhyme to their reason: Sunrise has taken a bruising from a resurgent Today in 2016 and Seven wants those Rio-powered numbers to regain the edge.

But Olympic television rights are, ultimately, a little like legal steroids. They help you win the race but once they're out of your system you're just flesh and bone fighting in an area of other flesh and bone competitors. The fix is temporary.

Whether it's sound mathematics to include Olympic data in end-of-year ratings is still debated, and is often the subject of terse emails exchanged between media and network spin doctors, but common sense tells you this: no one writes a $170 million cheque to secure the Olympics and then conveniently leaves them off the ledger.

OLYMPICS BY THE NUMBERS

The dollars

$US4.4 billion: the amount paid by NBC for rights to the Olympics through to 2020

$A170 million: the amount paid by Seven for rights to the Olympics through to 2020

The broadcast

Size of the International Broadcast Centre in Rio: 75,000 square feet

Metres of fiber-optic cable in the IBC: 40,000

Number of television cameras: 450

Number of hours of high-definition coverage provided from Rio: 7000

The Australian audience

Television audience reach: 17.5 million people

Strongest day: #1, 1.91 million viewers

Weakest day: #7, 1.01 million viewers

Online streaming video: 32.1 million plays

Facebook video: 34.4 million plays

YouTube video: 10.0 million plays

Twitter video: 5.3 million plays

Snapchat video: 3.8 million plays

Total social media video: 53.6 million plays