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NBC Sports: Most-watched year since 2016

December 31, 2024

It was a banner year for NBC Sports in 2024, from the industry-record three NFL playoff games on one weekend in January – highlighted by Peacock’s record-setting presentation of the first-ever exclusive live streamed playoff game – to the most-watched Kentucky Derby in 35 years, the conclusion of the most-watched Premier League season ever, golf’s US Open and Open Championships, a US Olympic Trials leading up to the widely-acclaimed multi-platform coverage of the 2024 Paris Olympics and Paralympics, and into the autumn with NASCAR, Big Ten and Notre Dame Football, and the continued dominance of primetime’s No 1 show Sunday Night Football.

Collectively, the most prestigious events and properties in sports propelled NBC Sports to its most-watched year since 2016, with more than 400 billion minutes (or more than 7 billion hours) consumed across NBCUniversal platforms.

NBC Sports delivered 32 shows in 2024 which topped 20 million viewers (TAD) across multiple platforms.

In 2024, NBC Sports announced a return of the NBA and WNBA in an 11-year agreement (which begins in October 2025); a new six-year deal for BIG EAST men’s and women’s basketball; a multi-year rights extension with IMSA; and an extension with Churchill Downs making NBC and Peacock the home of the Kentucky Derby through 2032.

Spectacular Paris Olympics Dominated Media Landscape

NBCUniversal’s innovative presentation of the 2024 Paris Olympics was the world’s biggest media event – highlighted by 7,000 hours of coverage, 329 events in and around the City of Light (and Tahiti!), and numerous breakout stars for Team USA, which won more medals (126) than any country and tied for the gold-medal lead (40).
NBCU registered a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 30.4 million viewers across the combined live Paris Prime (2-5 p.m. ET) and US primetime (8-11 p.m. ET/PT) time periods – up 80 per cent from the Tokyo Olympics (16.9 million), according to official data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics.

The NBC Broadcast Network extended its streak to 152 consecutive Summer Olympics nights as primetime’s No. 1 show.

Led by Peacock, 23.5 billion minutes of Paris Olympics coverage were streamed – up 40 per cent from all prior Summer and Winter Olympics combined (16.8 billion minutes across NBCUniversal digital platforms).USA Network ranked as the #1 cable sports/entertainment network in Total Day and primetime viewership over the two weeks of competition.

Major Viewership Milestones

Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card Became Most-Streamed Live Event in US History at the Time – With 32.1 million total viewers, according to Nielsen, the Peacock Exclusive AFC Wild Card Game became the most-streamed live event in US history at the time, and drove the Internet to its largest US usage ever on a single day and the largest Internet event ever, consuming 30 percent of Internet traffic during the game.
Most-Watched ‘Run for the Roses’ in 35 Years – NBC Sports’ presentation of the 150th Kentucky Derby averaged a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 16.7 million viewers across NBC and Peacock – marking the largest Kentucky Derby audience since 1989.
Sunday Night Football finished the 2023-2024 TV season as primetime’s #1 TV show in all key metrics for an unprecedented 13th consecutive year – adding to its record for the most consecutive years atop the charts (since 1950), based on official live plus same day data provided by Nielsen.
Premier League Sets All-Time US Viewership Record – NBC Sports’ coverage of the Premier League in 2023-24 delivered the largest average Premier League audience in U.S. media history across NBC, Peacock and USA Network.
2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs – Viewership for NBC Sports’ coverage of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs delivered year-over-year increases for seven out of 10 races and averaged 2.35 million viewers, up 6 per cent vs. 2023 (2.23 million).

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