Following record-low ratings and muted interest in the last two Olympic Games, NBCUniversal executives said today that ad sales for the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympic Games are pacing ahead of all previous NBCU-hosted games.

Key sponsorships such as the Opening Ceremony and halftimes for group sports are sold out for the broadcast across linear TV and streaming, with NBCU executives saying there’s high demand for new ad formats introduced for next year’s Olympics.

NBCU credits the faster pace of sales due to partnerships with celebrities such as Paris Hilton and Dolly Parton. For the spot in June starring Parton, alongside Universal’s cartoon Minion characters and WWE star Roman Reigns, NBCU saw almost a 60% increase in search for the Olympics, according to Jenny Storms, chief marketing officer for entertainment and sports at NBCUniversal.

The Paris Olympics will air between July 26 and Aug. 11, 2024, with all events streaming live on Peacock for the first time. While many of the live events will take place during daytime hours, NBCU will supplement them with content focused on the athletes’ stories, as well as data derived from tech such as biometric devices to measure the heart rates of athletes while they compete, during prime time hours.

NBCU is reducing ad time in its prime time content with “Olympic Prime pod sponsorships,” which allow a smaller selection of marketers to advertise during this time period. The pod sponsorships are also sold out across linear and streaming.

Streaming games

The addition of streaming has never been more important for the Olympics, as both the 2022 Beijing Winter Games and 2021 Tokyo Summer Games saw record-low ratings in prime time, albeit both were surrounded by less fanfare than usual due to the COVID pandemic. 

About 20% to 25% of 2024 Olympics viewership is expected to come from Peacock, according to Dan Lovinger, president of Olympic & Paralympic Partnerships at NBCUniversal.

Storms called Peacock’s ability to simulcast linear sports and events, which it’s been doing for “Sunday Night Football,” the media company’s “internal engine and muscle” to boost viewership in the era of cord cutting.

For example, the most recent “Sunday Night Football” match reached 26 million viewers on linear and 2 million viewers on Peacock, said Mark Marshall, NBCU chairman of global advertising and partnerships, during a keynote session at Advertising Week New York. Similarly, Marshall said Bravo shows such as “Below Deck” and “The Real Housewives,” and NBC’s “Saturday Night Live” receive over half of their viewership on streaming the day after they air on linear.

“When we get media budgets from clients, we get a linear budget and a digital budget,” said Marshall. “That’s crazy in today’s age, that we’re going to look at things like that. We have to be able to bring these together to find the right audiences.”

Also read: How Team USA is targeting Gen Z for the Olympics 

For advertisers, Peacock can also offset shortcomings from the past two Olympics, some of which resulted in reported make-goods for audience guarantees. Lovinger said that as linear households decline, streaming “creates massive growth in the absolute numbers of viewing hours and consumption.”

In past Olympics, NBCU would sell inventory to about 100 advertisers, said Lovinger. For the Paris Olympics, the media company will be able to double that because of advanced advertising on streaming. Lovinger said this also democratizes ad space during the games for advertisers who previously had not been able to afford scarce linear inventory.

NBCU will continue to utilize its AI-powered Olympics Ad Engine, which evaluates brands’ past Olympics creative to guide advertisers in creating the ideal content to achieve their marketing objectives.

In particular, Lovinger said the auto and pharmaceutical categories have shown strength, and noted that not categories have been especially weak. This is partially due to the timing of next year’s Olympics, which will serve as a major event between the Republican and Democratic national conventions.