By: Joe Koch and Talia Black
September 17, 2024
Photo Credit: Getty Images
The Olympics are always a time of celebration and unity, where athletes from countries all over the world etch their names into the fabric of the world's most prestigious, historically rich sporting competition. Throughout each Games, we see many inspiring stories and gold medals won, highlighting the trials and tribulations each athlete took to get to the top of their sport. The 2024 Paris Summer Olympics was no different, and this past summer's Games were easier to follow than ever before. NBCUniversal, the multinational media conglomerate and longtime host of the Olympics, enjoyed a successful summer of their own, delivering on their goal of putting on an Olympic experience to remember through their broadcasting.
Peacock, NBCUniversal’s subscription streaming service, was founded in 2020 and has not yet caught up to its more established streaming competition, which includes the likes of Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. Understanding the need to capitalize on their broadcasting rights to the Olympics in order to gain recognition and subscribers, Peacock introduced a few innovative tools to enhance the viewership experience during the Games.
Gold Zone directed viewers right to the best live action happening during any particular time, avoiding missing any must-see gold medal moments. Multiview was also a favorite feature among viewers, allowing users to stream multiple events at once through a split screen feature for no extra cost. If you knew you wanted to watch a specific event, the Browse by Sport option made it easy to navigate right to it. An artificial intelligence version of broadcasting legend Al Michaels hosted “Your Daily Olympic Recap on Peacock” for viewers unable to tune in throughout the entire broadcast, powered by ChatGPT.
All of these user-friendly features, among others, contributed to the extremely positive response NBC has received for its coverage. The Paris Olympics saw a record-high viewership of 30.6 million viewers across all NBCUniversal platforms. This was not only an 82% increase in viewership from the Tokyo Olympics, but also made it the most-streamed Olympics of all time with a combined 23.5 billion minutes of coverage streamed. In just the first week of the Olympic coverage, NBCUniversal gained an estimated 2.8 million new Peacock subscribers, according to the research firm Antenna. It is yet to be determined whether these streamers will retain their subscriptions, as third quarter earnings aren’t reported until late October. NBCU hopes to retain at least some of their new subscribers from the Olympics going into the NFL season with Sunday Night Football games being streamed on Peacock.
NBC also saw success through their partnerships with nationally adored celebrities, including Snoop Dogg, Kevin Hart, Kenan Thompson, and Colin Jost. Snoop Dogg served as a special correspondent for NBC, filming a number of hilarious segments with athletes such as Michael Phelps and Simone Biles, and even putting on full equestrian gear for the dressage team final. Hart and Thompson hosted a Peacock-exclusive comedic highlights show while SNL’s Jost served as a correspondent for the surfing coverage in Tahiti.
Advertising partners were able to benefit greatly from NBCU’s high engagement as well. In fact, 3 in 4 viewers said they trusted Olympic advertisers, and purchase intent for products and services advertised through Olympic broadcasts increasing by 17% (NBCUniversal). With more advertising sold than for any other Games in history, it is safe to assume companies are pleased about their decision to partner with NBC after the overwhelming success of these Paris Games.
Hosting the Olympics also leads to a major economic shift in tourism. The selection process of bidding a city to be an Olympic city venue is partially guided by how attractive the location is to get visitors. For Paris this past summer, that was never an issue of getting fans interested in attending one of the largest events held at one of the most popular travel destinations. For locations in the past, this meant having to build new infrastructure to contain the mass of tourists, but for Paris, this was different as everything was already present, saving hundreds of millions of dollars.
Another area of interest the International Olympic Committee (IOC) faces for the Olympics is to decrease the potential of event locations becoming “white elephants” in the future. White elephants are stadiums, arenas, and other structures built for the Olympics across the host city. However, once the games finish, these venues become desolate pieces serving little use creating a downward spiral in the regions’ economy. This effect has been extremely prominent in many locations, PyeongChang and Rio de Janeiro to name the most recent relevant examples. But for Paris, this wasn’t the case. Existing stadiums were used for a multitude of events and brought more local fans in than ever before. Along this vein, fan engagement was another key success at Paris 2024, especially after the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo was shut down for fans and spectators due to COVID-19. With the event planning issues caused by COVID-19 (mostly) in the rearview mirror, the 2024 Games was characterized by packed stadiums of cheering supporters who had made the journey to Paris from all around the world.
In summary, the 2024 Paris Olympics shined brighter than ever, and the IOC and NBCUniversal now turn to Los Angeles to serve as the next host for their marquee worldwide summer event, the 2028 Olympic Games.
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