Many wondered four years ago if NBC’s 2014 decision to secure U.S. media rights to the Olympics through 2032 for $7.75 billion was a bad business deal.
With NBC having its most-watched Winter Games in 12 years, those concerns appear to have quieted.
According to Nielsen and Adobe Analytics, NBC averaged 24 million viewers across its prime afternoon coverage (2-5 p.m. EST) and Primetime in Milan (8-11 p.m. EST and PST) through Friday. That is a 94% improvement over the 2022 Beijing Games.
This is the second straight Olympics where viewers have returned in large numbers. The 2024 Paris Summer Games were up 82% from 2021 in Tokyo.
Complete numbers from the 17 days — including the United States’ 2-1 overtime victory over Canada in men’s hockey Sunday morning — are expected to be released on Monday.
“I think that the Paris Games deserve a lot of the credit for rejuvenating that interest and enthusiasm, and some of that momentum continued through to Milan,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella said from Milan.
Molly Solomon, NBC’s president and executive producer for the Olympics, and her team also deserve credit for changing the network’s coverage approach after Beijing.
Instead of waiting until primetime to showcase key sports, those events were shown live via streaming along with NBC’s network and cable channels. The primetime show was reimagined to highlight key events with more interviews and analysis to supplement what viewers might have seen live earlier in the day.
“How do we best make sure that we are continuing to tell the story (of athletes) after they leave the venues? I do think that one of the improvements we made from our Paris coverage was to follow the athletes to their after-parties and reunions with their friends and families,” said Solomon, who is overseeing coverage from NBC Sports’ headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut.
“When Alex Ferreira won (the gold medal in men’s halfpipe), we went to the bar where he was celebrating. There was a Team USA celebration for Mikaela Shiffrin, where we were there for the toast, and she talked about not being able to help Breezy Johnson get on the platform.
“These athletes trusted us to have our cameras there, and I do think it made for even richer storytelling and taking the audience there.”
NBC adopted a format used for years in other countries while also listening to viewers who demanded change. NBC had streamed all Olympic sports since the 2012 London Games, but took a big leap when NBC Universal launched Peacock in 2020.
Through Friday, 14.8 billion minutes of the Milan Games had been streamed in the U.S., more than doubling the total for all prior Winter Games combined (6.9 billion).
Viewer gains can also be credited to the U.S. team’s performance, which underperformed in Tokyo and Beijing. Those games were played in hermetically sealed environments with mostly empty venues due to COVID-19.
Thursday’s win by the U.S. in women’s hockey over Canada in overtime and Alysa Liu’s gold medal in figure skating averaged 26.7 million across NBC, USA Network, Peacock, and NBCUniversal’s other digital platforms.
USA Network and Peacock averaged 5.3 million viewers for the gold-medal hockey game, making it the most-watched women’s hockey game on record. It peaked at 7.7 million in overtime when Megan Keller scored the game-winning goal.
“It was truly a golden hour. We popped between control rooms, and you just never know what’s going to happen,” Solomon said. “The energy in our control rooms on site, we couldn’t believe the confluence of drama and excitement, but that really is what the Olympics is about. It’s unpredictable, thrilling, and it just coincided in the golden 64 minutes.”
NBC is poised to continue the momentum for the next two games. The 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles will have wall-to-wall live coverage throughout the day, while the 2030 Winter Games in the French Alps will see NBC return to the coverage formula that worked in Paris and Milan.
The 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane, Australia, will have challenges because most events will take place overnight in the U.S., but the 2034 Winter Games in Salt Lake City will again provide another live Olympics.
NBC has the rights to the Olympics through 2036. It agreed to the 2034 and ’36 Games last year for $3 billion.
“Paris begets Milan, and Milan will beget LA. I think the Olympics are just unique in many respects,” Cordella said. “The U.S.-Swiss curling match, there are hundreds of thousands of people online streaming. They’re seeking it out and watching these matchups of these athletes; they probably didn’t know about them before the Olympics began. It’s compelling TV, and that’s kind of what the Olympics does.”
