NBCUniversal took home the gold medal in Nielsen’s Media Distributor Gauge for the month of August after the Paris 2024 Olympics boosted the media giant’s share of TV usage by 3.9 points to 13.4% — a personal-best and new record since calculations began back in November.
The company saw double-digit growth across entities that televised coverage of the Summer Games, with viewership on USA Network jumping 47%, Peacock rising 39% and NBC broadcast affiliates climbing 62%. Also boosting NBCU during the month was MSNBC’s coverage of the four-day Democratic National Convention, which lifted network viewership by 43% month-over-month.
“Few measurement intervals are likely to rival the impact the Paris Olympics had on TV consumption throughout July and August,” Nielsen shared Tuesday. “While the Games are undoubtedly unique from a cultural and TV programming perspective, NBCU established a successful blueprint for reaching consumers on their viewing platform of choice, which could prove to be an important milestone into the future.”
In addition to audiences turning their attention to the Olympics, many of the other media companies experienced the end-of-summer lull in viewership in August, with Disney, Paramount and Fox finishing with shares of 9.5%, 7.1% and 6%, respectively.
YouTube maintained its lead over Disney for the second consecutive month with a 2% increase that brought its total share to 10.6%. Elsewhere, Netflix finished in fourth place at 7.9% and Warner Bros. Discovery finished in sixth place at 6.9%.
Rounding out the remaining companies were Amazon with a share of 3.2%, followed by Scripps at 2.1%, The Roku Channel with (a platform-best of) 1.7% after a 3% bump in viewership during the month, Weigel Broadcasting at 1.3%, A&E Networks at 1.2%, Hallmark at 1.9% and AMC Networks at 0.9%.
Peacock finished the month with a 2.1% share of TV viewing for the month — a platform-best and up from 1.5% in the previous month, making it the third service this year to record a 0.5 point share increase or more on a monthly basis. It marks a 39% month-over-month increase and nearly double the amount of viewers ages 35-49.
Across all of NBC’s Olympics telecasts that aired during the August interval, 32 of them totaled more than 5 million viewers and 17 garnered more than 10 million viewers. Olympics telecasts on NBC notched the Top 19 broadcast telecasts of the month, with the primetime presentation of the Women’s Gymnastics Team Final topping the charts with 17.9 million viewers.
Total TV usage levels were even with July, though a year-over-year comparison revealed a larger imbalance as usage for the month was up 3.5% versus August 2023. A notable year-over-year difference was also evident among broadcast program genres, with broadcast sports program viewership up 239% over August 2023, further illustrating the impact of the Olympics on the overall TV landscape.
Ultimately, the broadcast category was given an 8% month-over-month and 11% year-over-year boost thanks to the Olympics to a total share of 22%.
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