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Research: Peacock Olympic strategy wins for NBCU

August 12, 2021

Findings from Hub Entertainment Research’s study about the Tokyo Olympic Games reveals that NBCUniversal’s strategy of placing key Olympic coverage on its new Peacock AVoD service appears to have paid off for both NBCU and its advertisers.

Peacock’s Olympic viewers had good news for advertisers. According to Hub’s study, 2021 Hub Olympics Flash Study, half (50 per cent) of Peacock Olympic viewers said they thought that ads during coverage added to their enjoyment of the Games, compared with just 36 per cent of NBCU Olympic viewers overall.

  • Also, a much greater share of Peacock Olympic viewers said that ads shown during the Olympics are more interesting than ads in regular programming (71 per cent) than did NBCU Olympic viewers overall (55 per cent)

Peacock also played an important role in adding to NBCU’s Olympic audience numbers. Among Tokyo Olympic viewers, about one in eight (12 per cent) said they watched the Olympics on Peacock. Overall, by Hub’s measure, Peacock-only viewers (6 per cent of Olympic viewers) accounted for almost one tenth of NBCU’s total cumulative audience.

  • Peacock was also more popular in younger demos important to advertisers
 Per cent of Olympic Viewers Who Watched on Peacock, by Age
16-24 25-34 35-49 50-64 65-74
13 per cent* 14 per cent 15 per cent 9 per cent 6 per cent
*To be read: 13 per cent of Olympic viewers age 16-24 said they watched on Peacock

Base: Olympic viewers in each age category

For those who watched the Olympics on Peacock, most (75 per cent) were current subscribers; 25 per cent had never sampled Peacock before or were lapsed subscribers. Although not definitive due to a small sample size, of these Peacock Olympic viewers who were not current subscribers prior to the Olympics, most say they will continue to watch Peacock after the Olympics.

“NBCUniversal has a long history of using the Olympics as a media lab to experiment with new services, and this year was no different with their promotion of Peacock as an Olympic coverage destination,” said David Tice, senior consultant to Hub and co-author of the study. “The findings from our survey indicate this strategy brought NBCU new users to sample Peacock; perhaps just as important are our findings that those who watched on Peacock have a more positive attitude towards Olympic advertisers and sponsors. It appears to be a win-win for NBCU and its clients.”

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