The 2024 Summer Olympic Games are a hit for Comcast’s NBC Universal, so much so that people are modifying their schedules to sit down and watch the network’s coverage of highly-anticipated competitions, executives affirmed this week.
On a conference call with reporters on Thursday, NBC Universal executives touted the high viewership that the 2024 Summer Olympic Games have brought to the network, its cable channels and streaming platform Peacock, which has seen around 70 percent higher daily viewership when compared to the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo (delayed to 2021 due to the coronavirus health pandemic.”
“We’re averaging 34 million viewers for our Paris prime-time and U.S. prime-time coverage, [across] all of our platforms,” said Mark Lazarus, the Chairman of NBC Universal Media Group and the executive in charge of the company’s streaming platforms, distribution and monetization efforts.
“That’s up 79 percent from Tokyo through the same point,” Lazarus continued. “Clearly, the Olympics are back, and it reminds me and those of us who were in London in 2012 of the enthusiasm that the crowds have here and what the excitement is at home. And we’re seeing that through our streaming, through linear and through social media platforms that has further enhanced the reach of the games here in Paris.”
Peacock has played a starring role in the network’s plan for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games, with the streaming platform offering live access to all competitions across 39 sports. Peacock also offers simulcasts of NBC’s daytime, prime-time and late night coverage, as well as feeds from its cable networks CNBC, E!, Golf Channel and USA Network when those channels are airing the Olympics.
Related: Special coverage of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games
For the first time, Peacock is also offering a whip-around channel called “Gold Zone” that offers live looks into key Olympic events as they happen. The channel streams from the late morning to early evening each day. The platform also offers the ability to watch certain events through a multi-view channel.
Peacock and other NBC Universal digital platforms average between 4 million and 5 million viewers each day, according to The Desk‘s review of data from Adobe Analytics, which NBC provides to reporters. The viewership is around one-sixth of NBC’s total audience delivery metric each day, suggesting most Olympic fans are still watching on traditional broadcast and cable television, or streaming cable alternatives like YouTube TV, Fubo and Sling TV.
That said, people are watching the Olympics, and in high numbers, with Nielsen reporting an average of 34 million viewers tuning in to watch NBC’s coverage of the games thus far.
“On Sunday, for instance, there were 280 individual live streams on Peacock, with 65 happening concurrently,” Rick Cordella, the President of NBC Sports, said on Thursday. “So, while you may be watching in the afternoon, watching one of those feeds, prime-time is the culmination and aggregation of all that content.”
Prime-time also allows NBC to incorporate entertainment-based elements into its coverage of the Olympics — the network has seen a high amount of interest in segments involving rapper Snoop Dogg, who was tapped to serve as a special correspondent at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games — and offer viewers alternative ways to consume the competitions, to include behind-the-scenes glimpses into how the magic of sports television comes together.
But NBC isn’t phoning things in the rest of the day — the network wants to make sure people keep tuning in, around the clock.
“From the viewership figures, America’s captivated, and there’s a lack of productivity in a lot of workplaces, and we’re here ready for it,” Molly Solomon, the President and Executive Producer of NBC Olympics, said on the call Thursday. “We set the goal early on to make sure that America is unproductive all day long.”
According to internal research provided by the network, one in four viewers surveyed said their “work productivity declines during the Olympics,” Shannon said. “Two of three people said the Olympics provide an escape. And half said they’re changing their daily routine to watch the Olympics.”
“That’s success to us,” Shannon proclaimed.
It is also proving to be a successful with NBC Universal’s advertisers, who purchased inventory across its broadcast, cable and digital properties well in advance of the Olympic Games. Earlier in the week, the network said interest in advertising opportunities through the 2024 Summer Olympic and Paralympic Games had outperformed its last two Olympic seasons — the set of games played in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.
The network has seen around $500 million in first-time sponsorship commitments from the 2024 Summer Games alone, and some analysts estimate NBC Universal could earn upwards of $1.25 billion from advertising revenue alone, a 77 percent increase from the revenue it earned from the Tokyo games.
“We’re in such great shape with ads that we’re looking at varieties and ways to utilize inventory from keep using it for more program time to marketing and promotion for parts of our big portfolio of companies here at NBC Universal and Comcast,” Lazarus said.
