Going for Gold — Streamers Renew Focus on the Viewership Experience Ahead of the 2024 Olympics

While the last few Olympics didn’t engage living room spectators like they had in previous years, things are looking up for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. With NBCUniversal (NBCU) predicting larger viewership numbers than those of the 2016 and 2020 Olympics in Rio and Tokyo, respectively, the 2024 Paris Games could be the most-watched televised event in eight years.

More than half of U.S. consumers (52%) reportedly watch the Olympic Games to “enjoy the spectacle and excitement of the event”. Despite the seemingly widespread positive feelings around the Games, though, viewership has waned in recent years. Beset by issues surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo (which were pushed to 2021 for obvious reasons) struggled with ratings. Then in 2022, the Beijing Winter Games experienced the lowest viewership numbers in history. But the outlook for Paris is positive.

One key contributor to this optimistic perspective is the simple fact that the 2024 Games will take place in, as Sports Business Journal termed it, a “friendlier” time zone for U.S. viewers. Simply put — there’s a bigger overlap in European daylight hours than in Asia (where the last two Olympics occurred), so U.S. consumers will be able to watch more of their favorite events in real time. And, if the latest Olympic trials are any indication, 2024 viewership numbers could break records — as NBCSports reported, Simone Biles’ gymnastics trials were the most watched Olympic trials telecast since 2016.

It certainly appears that the 2024 Summer Games will attract a large number of eyes — and with this comes opportunities for a plethora of advertisers to reach a wide-variety of engaged consumers. But streamers and advertisers alike should consider more than spectator numbers when it comes to the Paris Olympics.

The Rise of Sports on Streaming

When considering potential viewer trends around the 2024 Paris Olympics, it’s important to understand how the consumption of sports content has evolved. Until recently, live sporting events were most closely associated with traditional broadcast television. But as people cut cords in increasing numbers (Statista predicts this will grow to 75% of U.S. households by 2026), we’ve seen streaming heavyweights battling it out for sports programming rights — Amazon Prime Video is now the home of Thursday Night Football, NFL Sunday Ticket lives on Youtube TV, and MLS Season Pass is on Apple TV+.

As streaming services continue to acquire rights to sporting events, spectator numbers are expected to keep growing in a major way — EMARKETER predicts that Connected TV (CTV) live sports viewership will reach 126.8 million by 2027. This presents huge moments for advertisers to reach engaged viewers en masse, especially considering that 79% of consumers say content related to their favorite in-season sport is more important than any other content they consume (54% reported the same, even when a sport isn’t in season).

As Jaclyn Wyatt, head of digital marketing at Samsung Global, said, “I can tell the right story to the right audience during live sports, when their eyes are watching.”

The Olympics are a part of this. Despite overall viewership of the 2021 Tokyo Games being lackluster, data from broadcast partners’ digital platforms’ signaled the rise in streaming usage around the Olympics.

By all indications, the 2024 Paris Games will add to this trend — while different streaming services have hosted some Olympic events in the past, this time around, viewers can watch every event on NBC’s Peacock (more on this later).

Members of Younger Generations Are Expected To Make Up a Large Part of 2024 Olympic Viewership

Streaming is likely to come out on top when it comes to where people will be watching, but just as important for brands to understand is who comprises Olympic audiences and what they’ll be viewing.

One key trend for advertisers to note: it’s going to be a family affair. According to a recent LG study, the majority of parent viewers plan to watch with their kids.

This will create the perfect occasion for brands hoping to engage with ideal back-to-school audiences at a prime time for that type of shopping.

Aside from school-aged kids, this Olympics is expected to pull more spectators from younger generations than previous games.

Per Forbes, “The Olympic viewer on Peacock is significantly younger than on NBC. During the Tokyo Olympics, NBC said the median age on Peacock was 36. Conversely, the median age of the Olympic viewers on NBC has been steadily increasing with a median age in the low-to-mid fifties for the Tokyo Games.”

To address these findings, NBCU has developed fresh programming directed at younger generations. This includes a series hosted by Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson, which will cover the best and unexpected moments of the Games, in addition to interactive event watch parties with popular “Call Her Daddy” podcast host Alex Cooper.

New content catered to younger generations shouldn’t be advertisers’ only considerations, though. Viewers are still excited to watch traditional Olympic events. Gymnastics, swimming, and track & field all topped the list of events consumers said they’d be tuning in for. Here’s how the rest of the list shook out:

A Revitalized Focus on Viewer Experience Could Make a World of Difference

With high expectations for the 2024 Paris Olympics coming from all angles, the viewer experience is more important than ever. Consumers have consistently expressed frustration at the difficulty of finding the right place to watch events during previous Games. NBCU and other broadcasters seemingly heard them loud and clear.

“In the past, Olympics broadcasts have floundered when trying to satisfy audiences,” WIRED reports. “NBC, the main broadcaster of the Olympics in the U.S., has gotten flak for its programming strategy during Games past by spreading the events out over too many TV channels and delaying some coverage until prime time instead of presenting the Games the way most people prefer to watch their sports: live. But this time, NBC and other broadcasters seem eager to make it much easier to find what you want to see, when you want to see it.”

As mentioned earlier, a key initiative to combat frustration about where to watch is streamlining the viewing process — Peacock will stream more than 5,000 hours of live action, including all medal events. On top of this, the streaming platform has added features to make the overall viewing experience more pleasant, including:

• The ability to create a personalized Olympic viewing schedule 
• A discovery multiview which allows consumers to watch up to four events at once
• A daily recap of events narrated by an A.I.-generated version of broadcaster Al Michaels’ voice
• The Live Actions tool, which lets viewers choose their favorite sports, creating a feed of events they’re most interested in

Outside of Peacock, the Olympic Broadcasting Service (OBS) has also taken steps to make the viewership experience as pleasant as possible, no matter where someone is watching (in some cases, this means on their phones).

Per WIRED: “The OBS is producing its video content in ultrahigh definition and high dynamic range, which should spruce up the level of detail and color in every shot. Content is also being captured in all manner of formats: vertical video for watching clips on phones, 8K video for the highest-definition broadcasts, and 360-degree shots for truly immersive drama.”

Peacock and the OBS addressing viewer pain points head on could be a key unlock for not only the success of the 2024 Paris Olympics and all upcoming Games, but for the future of streaming sports in general.

Brands Should Take an Audience-First Approach to Advertising to Ensure Winning Engagement

After declining viewership numbers across recent Olympic Games, the pressure is on for Paris 2024. But as Peacock and others re-focus their efforts on the watching experience, it looks like this year’s Olympics could be a turning point for future Games as well as other live sports streaming.

Advertisers are wise to take a page out of Peacock’s book by taking an audience-first approach to their campaigns during the 2024 Games. To find success advertising during the Olympics, brands need to understand where and what people are viewing, but also who these audiences are. This way, advertisers can develop strong messaging to engage with their ideal audiences, no matter where or what Olympic events they’re watching.