NBC Olympics 2024 playbook has so far paid off

Comcast NBCUniversal has long bet on the Olympics, but this summer it is pouring all its resources into the games in a bid to win more viewership, especially for its growing streaming platform Peacock.

So far, it seems to have paid off – over 30 million people tune in The game was watched on NBC's television and streaming platforms and generated a record $1.2 billion in advertising revenue.

NBC executives, who once viewed the Olympics as a growth driver and differentiator in the increasingly crowded streaming and live sports space, are now looking to extend their advantage beyond the Olympics and into future live sports.

“We completely changed the game plan internally. We tore up the playbook two years ago,” said Jenny Storms, NBCUniversal's chief marketing officer for entertainment and sports. “There was a huge fear of tearing up the institutional knowledge that we had for a long time and starting over. From production to peers across the company, we really started a whole new whole.”

The Olympics have long been key to NBCUniversal. Paris commemorates the 18th Olympic Games, which will be broadcast by NBC in the United States updated In 2014, the two sides agreed to pay $7.65 billion for the Olympics from 2022 to 2032, with each cost exceeding $1.2 billion.

Just before the Paris Congress, these efforts failed. Tokyo 2021 and Beijing 2022 attracted the lowest ever attendance numbers for the Summer and Winter Olympics respectively.

Storms noted that factors surrounding the past two Olympics were largely beyond NBCUniversal's control.

Both Olympics were affected by the early stages of the epidemic. The Tokyo Olympics were postponed for a year, and fans and family members were absent from both games. Time zone differences in Asia also have an impact on U.S. broadcasts.

But it’s worth noting that Peacock’s strategy at that Olympics seemed to be its biggest mistake. In Tokyo, there are very few events live on Peacock. In Beijing, live content is available, but it’s hard for fans to find what they want to watch.

“We made the claim that Peacock was going to be the site of the Olympics, but we didn't quite deliver on it,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman of NBCUniversal Media Group. “We had a lot of expectations about how much content we were going to put there, how we were going to program it and how we were going to cross-deliver it (with traditional TV) were nervous and the fan base rightly told us we weren’t delivering on what we said we were going to do.”

Company executives see Paris as part of this year's Olympic success, which includes eye-catching scenery such as the opening ceremony on the Seine and beach volleyball in front of the Eiffel Tower, as well as a favorable time zone that works in NBC's favor.

This time, Storms said, the company also started its Olympic marketing campaign earlier, using various divisions of NBCUniversal to promote it, from news programs and talk shows to various forms of advertising.

Storms and Lazarus also pointed to the success of televising the Olympic Trials in the weeks leading up to the Games.

“We've never really tried hard to experiment before,” Storms said. “But this is the most live-streamed trial ever, and it's important to get America heated up.”

Then there's the star factor of NBCUniversal's internal roster.

Executives say that by 2024, companies will use their talent more strategically. In addition to airing content promos, NBC A-list stars were integrated into the event itself, co-hosting and reporting from the sidelines. Fan-favorite NBC Olympics special correspondent Snoop Dogg, garnered attention on social media and drew more eyes to the live event. And his performance in Paris helped promote his upcoming role on NBC's “The Voice” this fall.

Other NBC talent also attended the Olympics to promote their projects. Mariska Hargitay, who has played Olivia Benson on “Law & Order: SVU” since 1999, was in Paris for promotions Program No. 26 season. Several cast members from “Saturday Night Live” were in attendance, including Colin Jost, who covered surfing in Tahiti and had to create a Exit early Due to health issues.

NBC and Peacock shows have also been promoted at the Olympics, and Universal's upcoming film Wicked has been a regular highlight, with stars Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo on the opening red carpet superior.

The cast of “Wicked” also lent their voices to a promotional video for American gymnastics superstar Simone Biles, and an exclusive clip from the film was shown on “Today” in Paris. NBC said that based on the poll, “Wicked has made progress across measures during the Olympics, doubling our primary awareness levels and increasing overall awareness.”

one estimated According to data provider Antenna, 2.8 million consumers signed up for Peacock in the first week of the Summer Olympics, with an average of nearly 400,000 new consumers every day. According to Antenna, this nearly matches the number of registrations driven by Peacock's exclusive NFL Wild Card game in January. The game is believed to be the most live broadcast in history, with 27.6 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

Although Comcast recently reported that Peacock had 33 million paying customers as of June 30, down 500,000 from the previous period and widely attributed to post-wildcard churn, MoffettNathanson analyst Clay Craig Moffett said it's worth noting the number of customers who have stayed since the wild-card round.

“I suspect they'll have the same experience at the Olympics,” Moffitt said. “Sure, some of those customers will leave, but they may end up leaving many more.”

Lazarus said that during the Paris Olympics, traditional television still accounted for the majority of viewership, with nearly 90% of viewers watching through broadcast and cable channels. Taking advantage of a more favorable time zone, NBC broadcast live events on TV and Peacock during the day and rebranded its evening broadcast as “Paris Prime Time,” rebroadcasting major events with sidecar programming and interviews.

Executives say the strategy being adopted in Paris will serve as a road map for future Olympics – the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan and the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles – as well as other sporting events broadcast live on the NBC television network and Peacock.

Soon after the 2024 Olympics, new seasons for the English Premier League, the NFL and the National Football League will begin. NBC will also become the rights holder for National Basketball Association games beginning in the 2025-2026 season.

“I think Peacock has become more sophisticated in its sports coverage, as we saw with the Olympics,” said Shirin Malkani, co-chairman of Perkins Coie's sports industry group.

Revealed: CNBC parent company NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. rights holder for all summer and winter Olympics through 2032.