The 2024 Summer Olympic Games from Paris helped generate more interest in broadcast and cable networks for about three days in July, but the biggest boost to linear television came in August, according to the latest report from Nielsen.
The monthly “The Gauge” report shows broadcast accounted for 22 percent of all time spent with TV in the United States, buoyed by NBC’s Paris prime-time and U.S. prime-time coverage of highly-anticipated Olympic events.
“Across all of NBC’s Olympics telecasts that aired during the August interval, 32 of them totaled more than 5 million viewers, and 17 garnered more than 10 million viewers,” a Nielsen spokesperson wrote in the report. “Moreover, Olympics telecasts on NBC notched the top 19 broadcast telecasts of the month.”
The July 30th broadcast that saw Simone Biles and the U.S. Women’s Gymnatics Team clinching gold helped earn 17.9 million viewers to NBC, as well as four American medals in swimming and the U.S. women’s rugby team winning their bronze medals.
The events were categorized in the August ratings report to account for a full four-week period, which started on July 29, Nielsen said.
Most Olympic events aired on traditional linear television were relegated to NBC’s cable channels, as well as two pop-up channels called Paris Extra 1 and Paris Extra 2 that were carried on some pay TV systems like DirecTV, Dish Network, YouTube TV and Fubo.
Cable networks accounted for 26.3 percent of all time spent on TV in August, again attributed to NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympic Games from Paris, Nielsen said.
Together, broadcast and cable TV accounted for 48.3 percent of all time spent on TV, out pacing streaming services, which accounted for 41 percent. Streaming cable-like alternatives — including Hulu with Live TV, YouTube TV, Sling TV and Fubo — are counted in the “cable” category.
Related: Broadcast TV outperformed streaming during Olympic Games
Peacock was the fastest-growing service in terms August audience share, notching 2.1 percent of all TV time that month, Nielsen affirmed. The Comcast-owned platform offered all events from the Summer Olympic Games as live feeds, as well as special features like multi-view screens and a whip-around channel called Gold Zone.
Among all streaming services, YouTube once again captured the highest share of TV viewership with 10.6 percent share in August. Netflix came in second place with 7.9 percent of all TV time, followed by Amazon’s Prime Video at 3.1 percent.
Nielsen said TV viewership was about on par with July, but a year-over comparison showed TV time increased 3.5 percent, spurred by higher interest in sports programming on broadcast TV. According to Nielsen, sports programming saw a 239 percent increase in viewership compared to August 2023, “further illustrating the impact of the [Olympic Games] on the overall TV landscape.”
The Olympics helped increase cable viewership, too, but it wasn’t the only event to generate higher interest in cable networks. The Democratic National Conventional also drew more eyeballs to cable TV, Nielsen said. Comcast-owned MSNBC benefitted the most from the trend, with 11 of the top cable telecasts of the month.
