• by Maarten Albarda , Featured Contributor, August 2, 2024

I don’t get it. Apparently the Olympic viewing across all NBC platforms is up a whopping 79% compared to the Tokyo Olympic games. It just goes to show that your own personal experience and behavior are the worst predictors a marketer could ever use.

The Tokyo Olympics were coming on the back of the pandemic, and you will remember they were delayed and then held in virtually empty sports venues. It was eerie, it was soulless and then Simone Biles had “twisties” and dropped out and NBC, along with the Tokyo hosts, cried themselves to sleep each night with ratings very, very low.

How different is Paris: It’s only six hours ahead of us, versus the 13 hours of Tokyo. Paris forms a beautiful, romantic and aspirational backdrop to the games, something which the organizing committee and NBC are milking to full effect (and so they should!). Paris has sold out-venues, and visitors from around the globe can get there with relative ease and are having the time of their lives.

And the athletes in week one did not disappoint either. The basketball all stars are all-starring. The swimmers have their 13th Olympic medal winner and most-decorated American woman in history, Katie Ledecky, and newly adopted French superstar Léon  Marchand. And Simone Biles delivered the goods, while at one point soaring 12 feet above the mat and putting the dunking basketball stars to shame, in a good way.

There have been a few little “twisties,” with Canada women’s soccer leading the charge, but in true ugly duckling to swan style, they rose above their coach’s punishment and won games anyway. NBC could not have written a better script. None of the “scandals” to date have been major, and no significant disruptions have taken place, somewhat against expectations.

So all is well in the Olympic world, and NBC and its advertisers are reaping the rewards.

I was not expecting the public ratings to be a success at all. First, because I foolishly held my own viewing experience as a yardstick.  I have never understood the appeal of watching whole competition segments in prime time when you already know the outcome, and when NBC has already served perfectly acceptable highlight “snacks” on its Olympic channel during the day. By the time prime time rolls around, the competitions of the day feel like old news. I am all caught up so I watch something else at night.

Surely, everybody views that way, right?

Clearly not. The ratings success demonstrate that NBC was right to fork out $7.65 billion for the Olympic broadcast rights through 2032, and is on course to break its ad sales record for the Tokyo Olympics, which stood at $1.25 billion (and which led to a lot of make-good deals because the ratings for that event were, as explained above, well below expectations).

Reuters reports: “Surveys show that one in four Americans say their work productivity has declined since the Games began, and half say they have rearranged their daily routines in order to watch the action.”

So well done, NBC, well done, Paris and well done, IOC. But above all, well done, athletes, the true stars of the show. Not just those that walk away with the medals, but especially those that came from far, had to overcome significant hurdles, and were there to represent the Olympic spirit.