Media giant Comcast Corporation CMCSA enjoyed a viewership boost thanks to having exclusive broadcasting rights to 2024 Summer Olympics.
What Happened: A total of 30.6 million U.S. viewers tuned into 2024 Summer Olympics coverage in Paris, aired across Comcast’s NBC, NBCU and Peacock. That’s up 82% from the 2020 Summer Olympics.
In total, Comcast aired over 7,000 hours of coverage and 329 events across its NBC network and streaming platforms during the Summer Olympics.
A total of 23.5 billion minutes of Olympics coverage were streamed during the games, up 40% from all prior Summer and Winter Olympics combined.
The company's daytime and nighttime "prime" coverage had a streaming total audience delivery of 4.1 million viewers daily across Peacock and NBCU digital platforms.
Comcast's USA Network also benefitted. The cable channel ranked as the number one cable sports and entertainment network during the 2024 Summer Olympics for total day and prime-time viewership.
"Our NBCUniversal team matched the occasion of this transformative Paris Olympics, presenting peerless coverage in daytime and primetime across all platforms, including the NBC broadcast network, which once again was home to the most-watched night of television for 17 consecutive days," NBCUniversal Media Group Chairman Mark Lazarus said.
Why It's Important: The Summer Olympics coverage has helped boost NBC's broadcast reach during the 2023-2024 season, where it ranks number one for Adults 18-49. The company said NBC is on pace to win the key demographic during the season, which ends in September.
Lazarus called the 2024 Summer Olympics a "groundbreaking moment for Peacock" and said that all-time Olympics streaming records were shattered. Comcast even had the most-watched Opening Ceremony since the 2012 Olympics.
Comcast offered new viewing options for Peacock subscribers during the games including multiview and Gold Zone. The company said that Gold Zone was one of the top five most-watched Olympics titles and helped boost overall viewership.
The company also “sold more advertising for the Paris Olympics than for any other Games,” Lazarus said, citing how the so-called “halo effect” helped Comcast’s other businesses.
Whether Peacock saw a big bump in subscribers and if they retain subscribers now that the Olympics are over remains to be seen.
Comcast said its Olympics coverage had greater attention to ads by viewers and higher search engagement for advertisers. The company also said it saw the highest advertising revenue from an Olympics in company history with more advertisers than the last two Summer Olympics combined.
The strong viewership and advertising results for Comcast could also jolt third quarter financials.
Comcast also had several blockbuster movies that could help the third-quarter results and subsequent quarters as titles become available to stream on Peacock.
"Despicable Me 4" was released in July and is the third highest-grossing film domestically in 2024 with $330.1 million. The film has grossed over $800 million worldwide. Comcast also released "Twisters" on July 19, which ranks fifth domestically with $222.3 million. The film's $88.0 million international box office figure was lower than most titles.
With the two new films and the previously released "Kung Fu Panda 4," Comcast now has three of the top 10 grossing films domestically in 2024.
CMCSA Price Action: Comcast shares trade at $38.67 versus a 52-week trading range of $36.43 to $47.46. Comcast stock is down 12% year-to-date in 2024.
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