Spectacular Sunday of Paris Olympic Competition Draws More than 41 Million Viewers on NBC, Peacock and Across Key NBCU Platforms

NBCUniversal’s presentation of the opening Sunday of Paris Olympics competition on NBC, Peacock, and across key NBCU platforms posted a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 41.5 million viewers, according to custom fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics – nearly doubling the opening Sunday of competition for the Tokyo Olympics (21.7 million across all platforms).

Highlighted by Simone Biles leading the U.S. to the top score in the women’s gymnastics qualifier, the 1-2 finish by Torri Huske and Gretchen Walsh in the 100m butterfly, the U.S. women’s rugby team topping Brazil, and Leon Marchand winning gold in the 400m individual medley in his home country, live coverage in the afternoon (Paris Prime: 2-5 p.m. ET) was followed by a primetime presentation (8-11 p.m. ET/PT).

Beginning with Friday’s Opening Ceremony, NBCUniversal has a posted three-day Total Audience Delivery average of 34.5 million viewers across the combined live Paris Prime (2-5 p.m. ET) and U.S. primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) time periods – up 79% from Tokyo (19.3 million).

A pair of U.S. victories in team sports also delivered audience milestones on Sunday. The U.S. men’s basketball team averaged 10.9 million viewers on NBC and Peacock – a larger audience than for its victory in the Tokyo Olympics gold-medal game (9.3 million) – in winning its opener against Serbia. Later in the day, the U.S. women’s soccer team’s win over Germany topped all men’s and women’s matches in the Tokyo and Rio Olympics, with an average of 4.2 million viewers on USA Network and Peacock.

Peacock Powers Streaming Milestones

Led by Peacock, 4.5 billion minutes of Paris Olympics coverage has been streamed through Sunday – surpassing the entire Tokyo Olympics (4.48 billion minutes across NBCUniversal digital platforms).

Paris Olympics Opening Weekend grew on Peacock as Sunday, July 28 surpassed Saturday, July 27 as its second-best day of engagement ever, behind only the Peacock AFC Wild Card Exclusive, which was the most live-streamed event in U.S. history.

Sunday’s coverage was streamed by 6.0 million viewers on Peacock and NBCU Digital platforms.

Paris Olympics Delivers for Brands

Only three days in, advertisements in the Paris Olympics on NBCUniversal are already delivering impact for brands throughout the funnel - at incredible scale. Overall, advertisers are seeing higher attention on their ads (+18%), greater message recall (+33%) and an increased likelihood to search (+67%) on linear than competitive broadcast/cable television.

These Olympics are reaching key target audiences and delivering unparalleled impact for advertisers across key categories, including:

• Auto: Paris Olympics viewers are +24% more likely to be in the market for a car than the total population, with Paris auto advertisers already seeing a +52% greater incremental brand search vs. competitive TV.
• Restaurants: Paris Olympics viewers are +79% more likely to visit casual dining restaurants than the total population, with Paris Olympic restaurant advertisers earning +50% higher intent to visit a restaurant after seeing an ad vs. competitive TV.
• Movie Studios: Paris Olympics viewers are +38% more likely to be movie goers, with Paris Olympic advertisers seeing a +25% higher movie title recall and +37% higher intent to go see a movie that's advertised vs. competitive TV.

Sources: iSpot attention index, NBC (7/26-28); Marketcast TVBE, P18-49, NBC Prime vs. competitive broadcast/cable TV (7/26-27); EDO SER vs. auto category in competitive broadcast/cable TV (7/26-28); NBCU in-house audience insights utilizing 1P/3P data (7/26)

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day custom fast national figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Live viewership from 2-5 p.m. ET (Paris Prime) is inclusive of NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, E!, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2, and additional NBCU digital platforms. Primetime viewership includes NBC, Peacock, and USA Network. Official viewership will be available on Tuesday.

The NBC broadcast network and streaming service Peacock are the company’s primary platforms for its coverage of the Olympic Games Paris 2024. Click here for all the ways to watch NBCUniversal’s coverage. NBCU owns the U.S. media rights to the Olympic Games through 2032, which are scheduled for Paris (2024), Milan Cortina (2026), Los Angeles (2028) and Brisbane (2032). The host city for the 2030 Olympic Winter Games has not yet been chosen.

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