NBC Universal’s coverage of the opening ceremonies of the Paris Summer Olympics averaged 28.6 million viewers across the company’s TV and streaming platforms, a combined delivery which marks the biggest turnout for the quadrennial event since the 2012 Games in London scared up 40.7 million viewers.
The ratings figures include NBC’s live broadcast of the ceremonies Friday afternoon and the network’s repackaged primetime presentation. Streaming on Peacock accounted for approximately 2.5 million viewers, while the Spanish-language simulcast on Telemundo Deportes added another 666,000 to the media mix.
NBC did not break out the deliveries by daypart, and as various media reported earlier, the blended ratings across the two dayparts effectively make for an apples-to-hand-grenades comparison with past Olympics. For example, while Friday’s combined tally was up 10.7 million viewers compared to the 17.9 million who watched NBC’s primetime coverage of the opening ceremony from Tokyo—which was delayed a full year by the COVID-19 pandemic—the new standard of measurement pits more than six hours of content delivered across two distinct time periods against a standard three-hour evening window.
However you break down the data, NBC is rightly pleased by the reception. Since the Tokyo Olympics opened on July 23, 2021, the pay-TV bundle has lost nearly 30% of its legacy subscriber base. Over that same period, linear TV usage has dropped by 22%
“Last night’s opening ceremony, one of the most ambitious and complex in Olympic history, was a spectacle for those in attendance in Paris, delivered a huge audience across our NBCU platforms, and set records for Peacock,” said NBC Sports president Rick Cordella in a statement issued along with Friday’s ratings results. “Thanks to the tireless effort of our production and engineering teams, and extensive promotion, we are off to a strong start that is in line with the expectations of our NBC stations, and distribution and advertising partners. We are in great position as we look forward to the next two weeks of competition.”
If NBC keeps its deliveries up to snuff, the network will be able to unleash the cache of commercial inventory that’s been held back as an insurance policy. In other words, if the Olympics continue to match the guarantees NBC made to its advertisers, the units that were reserved for make-goods can be sold in scatter. The last time NBC was fortunate enough to be in the position to sell off some bonus airtime was in 2012, when the company booked an additional $200 million in ad sales.
Heading into the Summer Games, NBC had anticipated breaking its all-time sales record of $1.25 billion, which it set in Tokyo. That said, it’s going to be tough for the Comcast-owned company to make a profit on Paris, as the rights fee for the XXXIII Olympiad swelled to $1.45 billion.
While NBC’s standalone primetime numbers will not be available until Tuesday afternoon, local market data suggests that the audience for the traditional 8-11 p.m. EDT window was much lower than usual. In the New York DMA, NBC affiliate WNBC-4 averaged 1.06 million viewers, which marked a 60% decline compared to the 2.63 million viewers who watched the primetime coverage from London—the most recent Olympics with a comparable time zone difference.
Coverage of the ceremonies in the pre-pandemic era averaged north of 2 million viewers in the New York market.
