Paris Olympics are the most recent test to determine whether sports attract new subscribers to NBC Peacock

NBCUniversal has bet it will be able to predict that the Paris Olympics will drive viewership across all of its TV platforms and will increase the number of users to its streaming service and Peacock.

By Lillian Rizzo

The Paris Olympics will offer Comcast the chance to grow its platform to stream, Peacock, as it will not only aim to draw more subscribers but to keep them.

Although the upcoming Olympics is the fourth edition in a row since Peacock first began the 2020 Olympics It is also the first opportunity of the Comcast’s NBCUniversal the parent of CNBC to use longer-term U.S. media rights to increase the quality of streaming.

“In some ways, Comcast is starting with a clean slate, in that this will be the first Olympics for Peacock since the games were blown up by the pandemic and distorted time zones,” said analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson. “But they’ve also had the chance to acquire a great deal which means they’ll be more equipped to take advantage of the Olympics as opposed to before. “

There are a myriad of reasons this Olympics are more attractive for Peacock in comparison to prior Games such as the fact that the time zones are advantageous, which means that Paris is six minutes ahead of the East Coast in the U.S. It is compared to 13 hours in Tokyo in 2021. The removal of the restrictions in place at the time of the outbreak of the Covid disease is a key factor, along with the lure of the city hosting the Olympics, Paris.

and, perhaps the most importantly, Peacock will air the entire Summer Olympics for the first time in history.

“It was different times, since Peacock didn’t have the rights to show all of the Olympics back in 2021,” declared Molly Solomon, NBC’s executive producer for the Olympics. “But we’re now in an entirely new period of streaming and rights agreements. Peacock is now the official streaming platform for the Olympics and there’s no limit to how much you’re a huge or a casual one, as the entire Olympics will be accessible on Peacock. “

Some fans were uncertain during the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo about live streaming that was available on the live streaming website.

“I don’t know that there is a great comparison to be made,” said Kelly Campbell, president of Peacock. “This is the largest Olympic venue in U.S. history. “

The Olympics are an important moment for Peacock since traditional media firms are pushing their streaming services to remain in the hands of consumers and generate revenue in an uncertain industry. Live sports specifically are the ones that have attracted the largest number of viewers to traditional television or streaming.

Olympics TV gold

The Olympics have always been a significant part within the portfolio of sports of NBCUniversal. The relationship dates back to when NBC Radio covered the events. NBC first broadcast the games at the time of the 1964 Summer Olympics.

Paris was the 18th NBC Olympic Games. Comcast has agreed to pay $7.65 billion in order to renew the contract for media rights through 2032..

In the year 2020 in 2020, the Tokyo Olympics that were scheduled in 2021, due to the Covid pandemic saw the lowest number of viewers ever during the Summer Games. The report stated by the media that Beijing Olympics that took place in 2022 had the smallest number of spectators ever recorded for these Winter Games, which are substantially lower than during the Summer Olympics.

Additionally, there is a favorable time change, and the breathtaking backdrop of France This year for instance the opening ceremony will be be broadcast on Friday afternoon at on the Seine River, the equestrian teams will be playing within the Palace of Versailles while beach volleyball will be played close to the Eiffel tower, for instance. NBCUniversal as well as other bets companies are betting on the possibility of a revival in viewers at the Olympics.

Most U.S viewers are preparing to stream the Olympics this year, with 60 percent planning to stream this year’s Games and 47% of them planning to watch them on conventional TV according to Numerator’s latest research of more than a hundred thousand viewers.

Additionally advertisers are enticed to this season’s Paris Games. NBCUniversal declared in April it made more than $1.2 billion in advertising during the current Summer Games, a record for the Olympics.

streaming services that are ad-supported such as Peacock and other digital companies have seen the growth of advertising revenue in recent months as the market rebounded.

The competitions will be live broadcast all day long across America, U.S., NBC has declared the competition “Primetime in Paris” and will air major events on detailed programs such as interviews.

At the end of the day, there will provide longer hours of Olympics on the broadcast network NBC than the previous years and the cable networks such as USA will also provide many live streams. Each event will be live streamed on Peacock and will be accessible for replay, meaning that the fans can watch the whole Games without having a cable TV subscription.

In addition it is expected for people in the U.S. audience is likely to be watching events such as basketball for men and women, with both featuring stars of the game; Simone Biles’ final season as a gymnastics star and the U.S. swim team’s heated rivalry with Australia.

“I’m sure basketball will tell its own story in terms of ratings and everyone watching, but [the] no-guaranteed-big-victory part of this is something that will keep everyone watching when Team USA plays in men’s basketball,” NBC prime-time and daytime Olympic host Mike Tirico said during a press call this week, referencing the fact that the U.S. men’s basketball team faces a tougher path than ever to a gold medal.

Peacock’s sports book

Live sports provides the sole way to reach the large TV audience and the streaming service allows you to join and keep customers.

This is especially relevant to Peacock.

A streaming service which costs $7.99 with ads or $13.99 commercial-free earned money by its mother’s portfolio the rights of sports. Its rights to the National Football League, English Premier League, Nascar, Big Ten college football, golf, and transmissions broadcast that are broadcast in Spanish to broadcast World Cup. World Cup have all played in keeping customers.

In this year’s edition, Comcast said that the unique NFL Wild Card game on Peacock led to the increase of customers faster than they imagined.

“We sort of used the Wild Card game as a hook to bring in millions of new subscribers but then also used that opportunity to expose them to new content,” Campbell stated. Campbell. Following a massive crowd of people gather to watch the most prestigious sporting event of the season, she explained that 90% of the content they watch after the sporting event will be entertainment.

Over the course of three days, there was more than estimated three million viewers enrolled in the Peacock’s NFL Wild Card game, according to the data from TV supplier Antenna. Comcast has stated that it retained more customers than they expected following the game however, the information from Antenna showed the 71% percentage of customers remained on the service for seven weeks after the match.

But, the length of the customers ‘ lives is yet to be evaluated. Peacock had 33 million paying customers as of June 30, the day it made its announcement at the beginning of this week. The amount of customers was lower than the approximately 500,000 customers in the quarter which ended on March 31.

The last Olympic Games that aired on Peacock was also the reason the increase of registrations conformity with the Antenna data.

NBCUniversal has also boosted its sports betting options by declaring the week leading up to the signing of an 11-year agreement to license media with NBA and will also include exclusive games for Peacock which will start in 2025-2026.

“None of this promises that Peacock is actually going to be a successful business,” Moffett said. “It does not alter how streaming works. It’s probably less profitable than the linear TV it was. “

“But I think it’s now much clearer than it was before that Peacock’s plan is all around sports,” the man said.

Apart from the countless live broadcasts, Peacock will also offer replays and special programming. It will also have an “watch-along” show hosted by Alex Cooper, who hosts the popular podcast “Call Her Daddy,” as well as “Gold Zone,” hosted by Scott Hanson of “NFL Red Zone” and similar format.

“I wanted to try a ‘Watch With’ companion program, where a popular personality would be watching along with the audience,” Solomon declared. Solomon. The expectation is that people who watch Cooper whom was once a soccer player, and also a well-known TV host, will be watching the show with Olympics viewers. “We have selected certain of the most important games in the Olympics and we expect to attract new viewers. “

Peacock plans to also bring an Artificial Intelligence into the Olympics. The participants will receive updates every day that will be delivered by Al Michaels, the longtime Sunday Night Football host who has been a part of amazon’s Thursday Night Football broadcast.

Disclaimer CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the U.S. broadcast rights owner for the entire Summer and Winter Games through 2032.