While US athletes nibble on their Olympic gold medals, NBC is celebrating a platinum haul in ad money.
NBCUniversal said Wednesday that it broke its record for advertising sales with its coverage of the Summer Games in Paris, besting the the previous high of $1.25 billion raked in during the last Olympics in Tokyo.
The media giant declined to disclose how much ad revenue it has reeled in, but it did confirm it amassed more than $1.25 billion as ratings for the Paris games jumped 77% so far over the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Games.
“The 2024 Paris Games have delivered a uniquely powerful halo for brands at an incredible scale with a highly engaged and passionate audience,” said Mark Marshall, NBCUniversal’s chairman of global advertising and partnerships.
NBC provided some detail on the ad mix for Paris, noting that nearly half a billion dollars in ad revenue came from first-time sponsors.
The company added that digital ad revenue has more than doubled compared to the Tokyo games in 2021.
It also noted that the total number of advertisers was more than double the Tokyo and 2016 Rio games combined.
NBC paid $7.75 billion for the rights to broadcast the the Summer and Winter Games through until 2032, including the 2028 Olympics that will be held in in Los Angeles.
The record revenue comes on top of soaring ratings for the Comcast-owned broadcaster.
NBC drew 28.6 million viewers for Friday’s opening ceremony, featuring a comeback performance from Celine Dion.
On Saturday, the network’s audience grew to 32.4 million and swelled to 41.5 million, thanks to the first day of competition for Simone Biles and the US women’s gymnastics team, according to Nielsen and Adobe analytics data.
NBC said it garnered 31.3 million viewers on Monday, which featured the US men’s gymnasts winning their first medal, a bronze, in the team competition since 2008 in dramatic fashion.
The strong showing reflects a 77% jump from the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics, which averaged 19.1 million viewers.
Aside from a friendlier time zone for American viewers, NBC credited its streaming service Peacock for the added boost.
“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],” NBC said.
The Paris games also mark a dramatic rebound from the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which turned in historically low TV ratings of just 11.4 million average total viewers.
