NBC Olympics 2024 plan has paid off so far

Comcast NBCUniversal has a long-standing bet on the Olympics, but this summer the company threw all its resources into the Games in an effort to attract more viewers — especially to its growing streaming platform, Peacock.

And it seems to be paying off so far — more than 30 million people watched the games across NBC's television and streaming platforms, and a record $1.2 billion in advertising revenue was generated.

NBC executives, who have viewed the Olympics as a growth engine and a standout in the increasingly crowded landscape of live sports broadcasting, are now looking to expand the interest beyond the games to include future live sports.

“We changed the entire game plan internally,” said Jenny Storms, NBCUniversal’s chief marketing officer for entertainment and sports. “We tore up the playbook two years ago. It was very scary at the time to take the institutional knowledge that we had for so long and tear it up and start over. We really started completely over, from production to our corporate counterparts.”

The Olympics have long been a staple of NBCUniversal’s success. Paris was the 18th Olympic Games that NBC aired in the United States. The company renewed its rights in 2014, agreeing to pay $7.65 billion for the games between 2022 and 2032, or more than $1.2 billion per Games.

Just before Paris, the effort failed. The Tokyo 2021 and Beijing 2022 Olympic Games drew the lowest crowds ever for the Summer and Winter Games, respectively.

Storms noted that there were factors at play in the last two Olympics that were largely beyond NBCUniversal's control.

Both Games were caught up in the early stages of the pandemic. Tokyo was postponed for a year, with fans and families unable to attend either event. The time difference with Asia also worked against the U.S. broadcast.

But Peacock’s strategy during those Games appears to have been the biggest mistake. In Tokyo, there were very few events available to stream live on Peacock. In Beijing, live content was available, but fans had a hard time finding what they wanted to watch.

“We claimed Peacock would be the home of the Olympics, but we didn’t exactly deliver on that promise,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group. “We were nervous about how much content we would put there, how we would program it and how we would deliver it (with traditional television). And our audiences rightly told us we didn’t deliver on that promise.”

Executives across the company have hailed Paris as part of the success of this year's Olympics, thanks to its stunning scenery — with the opening ceremony on the Seine River and beach volleyball played in front of the Eiffel Tower, to name a few — and a favorable time zone that works in NBC's favor.

The company also started marketing the Olympics much earlier this time around, using different parts of NBCUniversal to spread the word, from news and talk shows to various forms of advertising, Storms said.

Both Storms and Lazarus also pointed to the success of broadcasting Olympic trials in the weeks leading up to the Games.

“We had never done a lot of testing before, but it was the most broadcasted test ever, and it was important to boost America's morale,” Storms said.

And then there was the star factor of NBCUniversal's internal roster.

Executives said the company has used its own talent more strategically in 2024. In addition to airing content promotions, NBC stars have been embedded in the events themselves, co-hosting and covering from the sidelines. Snoop Dogg, NBC’s Olympics special correspondent, has created a buzz on social media and drawn more attention to the live events. His high-profile appearance in Paris also helped promote his upcoming role on NBC’s “The Voice” this fall.

“We had a great experience with Snoop Dogg, and we're definitely in the Snoop Dogg space with 'The Voice,' and we hope to be in the Snoop Dogg space in the future,” Lazarus said, adding that NBCUniversal has no commitment to Snoop Dogg yet for future Olympics.

Other NBC talent was also in attendance to promote their projects. Mariska Hargitay, who has played Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: SVU” since 1999, was in Paris to promote the show’s 26th season. A variety of “Saturday Night Live” cast members were also in attendance, including Colin Jost, who covered surfing in Tahiti and had to exit early due to health issues.

Shows from NBC and Peacock were also promoted at the Games, and Universal's upcoming film, “Wicked,” was frequently highlighted, with stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo appearing on the red carpet at the opening ceremony.

The cast of “Wicked” also voiced American gymnast Simone Biles in a promotional clip, and an exclusive clip from the film aired on the “Today” show from Paris. “‘Wicked’ gained huge popularity among moviegoers during the Olympics, doubling the film’s awareness and increasing overall awareness,” NBC said, according to polls.

Peacock was undoubtedly the brightest of NBC's platforms during the Olympics.

Thanks largely to Peacock, 23.5 billion minutes of the Olympics were streamed, which is 40% more than all previous Summer and Winter Olympics combined, according to a press release.

“The Peacock has given us everything we have never given before,” Lazarus said.

In addition to live coverage of all games, exclusive programming like “Gold Zone,” hosted by Scott Hanson of NFL Red Zone, gave fans more options to watch throughout the day. There were also features specifically designed for the Olympics, such as an AI function that provided daily summaries in the voice of Al Michaels, a longtime voice of famous NFL games.

An estimated 2.8 million consumers signed up for Peacock during the first week of the Summer Games, averaging 400,000 daily subscribers, according to data provider Antenna. That’s nearly matching the subscriptions driven by Peacock’s exclusive NFL Wild Card game in January, according to Antenna. The game is the most-streamed live event in history with 27.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

While Comcast recently reported that Peacock had 33 million paid customers as of June 30 — 500,000 fewer than the prior period, largely attributed to the loss of customers who exited after the Wild Card Game — MoffettNathanson analyst Craig Moffett said it's worth noting the customers who stayed since the Wild Card Game.

“I think they'll have the same experience with the Olympics,” Moffitt said. “Some of those customers will certainly leave, but they'll probably end up retaining more customers.”

Still, traditional TV channels accounted for the bulk of the audience during the Paris Olympics — with about 90 percent of viewers watching the Games on cable and satellite, Lazarus said. Thanks to a more convenient time zone, NBC aired live events on cable and Peacock during the day, and rebranded the evening broadcast as “Primetime in Paris,” rebroadcasting major events with sideshows and interviews.

The strategy used in Paris will serve as a roadmap for future Olympics — the 2026 Winter Games in Milan and the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles — as well as other live sports broadcast on NBC and the Peacock networks, executives said.

Shortly after the 2024 Olympics, new seasons of the English Premier League, American college football, and the National Football League will begin. NBC will also hold the rights to broadcast NBA games starting in the 2025-26 season.

“I think Peacock has become more sophisticated, as we saw with the Olympics, in how they cover sporting events,” said Shirin Malkani, co-chair of the sports industry group at Perkins Coie.

Disclosure: NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC, owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics holds the U.S. broadcast rights to all Summer and Winter Games through 2032.