Dr. Cody T. Havard
Professor in the Kemmons Wilson School at The University of Memphis. He researches about rivalry and group behavior to better understand its impact on greater society. He produces and hosts Being a Fan of Disney: The Podcast, and is the author of Being a Fan of Disney: The Book, which accompanies classes where he discusses how Disney influences consumer lives.
Email: chavard@memphis.edu
Twitter: @chavardphd
Threads: @cody.havard
When the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France wrapped up, the United States finished atop the medal count with 126 medals, including 40 gold medals, 44 silver, and 42 bronze medals. When the Games ended, the United States had 35 more medals than any other country, with China ranking second with 91 overall medals. The top five was rounded out by Great Britain (65), France (64), and Australia (53). Along with the success of the American Olympic Team, another success within the NBCUniversal company was the coverage offered by NBC across its linear channels and Peacock streaming service. This essay discusses the impact of streaming the Olympic Games to American viewers, and the future impact on entertainment consumers.
In early 2019, NBCUniversal announced plans to launch a direct-to-consumer streaming platform to offer in-house entertainment to customers. They joined the likes of Apple and The Walt Disney Company by stating their case for entering the streaming entertainment marketplace. When Netflix launched in 2007, NBCUniversal was one of the major entertainment companies to join forces in the creation of Hulu. They planned to launch their streaming service in 2020, shortly after rival Disney would launch Disney+. A major promotional tactic for NBCUniversal in the launch of what would be called Peacock was the ability of consumers in the United States and select European countries to stream the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
In March 2020, when much of the world was placed under mandatory lockdowns amid the pandemic, NBCUniversal had to postpone much of their offerings for the service until 2021. Further, it was announced that the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games would be postponed until summer 2021, leaving Peacock without its marquee event to help support its launch. Falling behind other streaming services that grew in popularity during the early days of the pandemic like Disney+ and Apple TV+, NBCUniversal looked toward summer 2021 and the Olympic Games to entice people to consume Peacock. According to Statista, in the first quarter of 2021, Peacock reported only 4 million subscribers. However, during the Tokyo Olympic Games held in the summer of 2021, strict lockdowns kept people from attending events live, and viewership suffered as people didn’t want to watch events without sizable crowds to add excitement. By the end of the year, Peacock reported 9 million subscribers.
Jump to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games, Peacock had 33 million subscribers. During the Games, NBCUniversal produced 7,000 hours of coverage over its linear channels and Peacock. Through their various channel offerings, NBCUniversal showed all 329 events, and averaged 30.6 million viewers during Paris prime time and United States prime time hours. Viewers were treated to the comeback story of Simone Biles, the swimming rivalry between the United States and Australia, and many other moments during the Games. The ability to watch live events with full, or close to full venues resulted in an 82% increase in viewership over the Tokyo Olympic Games.
The combination of full venues, the ability to see the sights of Paris, and the excitement of an Olympic Games with live spectators present helped coverage outpace that of the Rio de Janeiro Games (27.5 million) and London Games (30.3 million). Regarding Peacock specifically, viewers streamed 23.5 billion minutes of coverage, a 40% increase over the Tokyo Games and Beijing Winter Games combined. Further, the coverage on Peacock was much improved in viewers ability to browse and search for specific events.
The question raised by the impressive streaming performance of the Paris Olympic Games is how it will impact the future of live sports entertainment. As the National Basketball Association announced its latest media rights deal, games will be shown on Disney-owned channels and platforms, NBCUniversal offerings, including Peacock, and Amazon Prime Video. With the ever-evolving streaming marketplace, and the importance of live sports to streaming, did the 2024 Paris Olympic Games represent the unofficial launch of Peacock and their ability to compete in the future of consumer entertainment?
