Olympics ratings surprise: The Games are big for NBC and Peacock

The Paris Olympics have brought some joie de vivre to NBCUniversal.

For the first 13 days of the Games, the Comcast Corp.-owned media company averaged 32.2 million viewers across its TV and streaming platforms, according to data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. The figure combines the live coverage shown during the day and the recorded highlights telecast and streamed in the evening.

The Paris number is 76% higher than the audience for the Games in Tokyo, which were delayed a year and held in 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Olympics content streamed on NBC’s Peacock platform surpassed 19.1 billion minutes viewed, more than the 16.8 billion minutes watched on the service for all previous Olympics, winter and summer, combined.

The contrast with Tokyo three years ago could hardly be more stark.

At that time, the pandemic still loomed large and the biggest U.S. star, gymnast Simone Biles, departed early from much of the competition due to mental health issues. Those who competed did so in front of empty spectator stands, depriving viewers of the emotion and passion that family members and fans provide during the Games.

In 2021, NBC had to give commercial time away to advertisers when the ratings came in lower than expected. The network typically holds back commercial time in the event that audience levels fall short of what brands are promised.

But this year, the ratings performance exceeded NBC’s expectations, and the network is reaping the benefits.

NBC was able to sell its reserve of commercials at an even higher price than the inventory purchased before the Games began. Among the major takers was the presidential campaign of Vice President Kamala Harris, who abruptly became the presumptive Democratic nominee last month and needs to quickly introduce herself to the public.

“It’s a nice piece of business for us,” NBCUniversal Media Group Chair Mark Lazarus said in a telephone interview.

The additional sales helped push NBC’s ad revenue well past the previous record of $1.25 billion it took in during 2021. The final number for Paris will be the largest ad revenue take for any TV event in history, an NBC representative said. (Super Bowl Sundays typically generate about $1 billion for the network carrying the game.)

NBC may have been fortunate that the Paris Olympics came along at a time when a deeply politically divided country could use a break.

Two weeks before the Games began, former President Trump barely escaped an assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally. Not long after, President Biden made the stunning decision to pull out of his reelection campaign. Meanwhile, tensions are running high over Israel’s war with Hamas, creating fear over a larger military conflict in the Middle East.

Brent Magid, chief executive of the media research firm Magid, said a celebratory collective viewing experience may have been just what the public needed.

“The Olympics are an in-the-moment activity that happens to be very positive in a world that is thinking very negatively,” Magid said. “Consumers are looking for escape in their lives, and this brings it in spades.”

Having the City of Lights as a backdrop also helped. Athletes have been shown having fun on their off days, cheering on their competing comrades and hanging out with the network’s breakout Olympics coverage star, Snoop Dogg. Celebrities from Tom Brady to Lady Gaga have turned up in the crowd.

Peacock, which trails other major streaming platforms with about 34 million subscribers, is a major beneficiary of the success. NBC Sports President Rick Cordella said new subscriber sign-ups have surpassed expectations, although the company has not revealed that number yet.

Peacock streamed every sport live, including all 329 medal events. NBCUniversal enhanced the Peacock streaming experience by offering exclusive elements such as the addictive “Gold Zone” feature, which guided users to decisive moments in a variety of events as they happened, sometimes using multiple boxes on the screen.

Making a multitude of events available on demand satisfied the streaming audience that wanted the choice and convenience of on-demand viewing. But the Games’ performance also proved that people will show up for traditional TV if there is compelling drama they have to see in real time.

The gold-medal-winning performance of Biles and the U.S. women’s gymnastics team was watched by 12.7 million people across NBC’s platforms on July 30, even though it ran smack in the middle of the workday. The figure was an all-time high for a daytime Olympics event and topped the average audience for this year’s NBA Finals, which aired in prime time on ABC.

The number may have been helped by a behavioral shift left over from the COVID-19 lockdowns. More people are working at home — and what‘s the harm of having some gymnastics playing in the background?

“It’s the content that’s precious, not the time of day,” Lazarus said. “If you exhibit in a way that’s interesting, people will show up.”

John Rood, chief marketing officer for Magid, said consumers’ willingness to turn on the TV at all hours will continue to benefit the Olympics as time goes on. “One’s ability to watch on their laptop or phone is only going to get more common in every passing four-year span,” he said.

NBCUniversal has the rights to the Games through 2032. The next Summer Games will be held in Los Angeles in 2028. The next Winter Games are in Milan in 2026.

Gymnastics has long been a strong draw for female viewers. But the Paris Olympics may also be benefiting from an overall increase in interest in women’s sports.

The wild popularity of Caitlin Clark, now with the WNBA, helped drive a record audience of 17 million viewers for the NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship game in March. (Clark’s exclusion from the women’s U.S. Olympic basketball team became a national topic of discussion.)

A Magid study conducted that same month showed that 60% of consumers said they are paying more attention to women’s professional sports. The figure was 57% for women’s college sports.

NBC was also able to integrate entertainment figures into its Olympics coverage without generating a lot of pearl-clutching from sports purists. It helped the network deliver audiences of 13 million or more in prime time, even though all of the competition shown was on video.

Viewers embraced Snoop Dogg’s feel good vibe as he wandered through the events as the No. 1 U.S. Olympics team cheerleader. His role is long in the making.

The legendary rapper was part of the network’s Tokyo coverage in 2021. He has also developed a relationship with NBC by co-hosting a competition series, “The Great American Song Contest,” and serving as a coach on the upcoming season of “The Voice.”

Executive producer Molly Solomon and her team saw the potential to expand his role this year. “He obviously came to these Olympics with an enthusiastic optimistic point of view,” Lazarus said. “Molly Solomon calls him the ambassador of happiness.”