As Team USA ended the Milan Cortina Olympics with 12 gold medals — the best performance ever at a Winter Games — NBCUniversal is also touting a shiny performance for its coverage of the 17-day event. According to the company, this repped the most-watched Winter Olympics in the U.S. since 2014.
This year’s Winter Games coverage (which spanned 3,200 hours and 116 events) averaged 23.5 million viewers via NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal’s digital platforms and Versant’s USA Network and CNBC. That includes the “Milan Prime” afternoon window (2 p.m. to 5 p.m. ET) and the U.S. primetime (8 p.m. to 11 p.m.) time periods. According to NBCU, it’s the best Winter Games performance since the Sochi Games in 2014, and was up 96% from the Beijing Winter Games in 2022 (12 million).
According to NBCU, all full 15 competition days (Feb. 7 to Feb. 21) averaged over 20 million viewers. Also, “Milan Prime” (live in daytime) and “Primetime in Milan” averaged 3.3 million viewers daily streaming across Peacock and NBCU digital.
Among big events, the USA women’s hockey team’s victory over Canada on Thursday was the most-watched women’s hockey game ever (5.3 million viewers on USA Network and Peacock).
Among local markets, Milwaukee was tops — with a 13.7 rating/49 share, followed by Minneapolis (13.5/53) and Fort Myers, Fla. (13.1/42). In social, NBCU said its Milan Cortina Olympics content registered 4.28 billion impressions across NBC Sports social channels up 437% increase vs. the Beijing Olympics in 2022 and 231% above the 2018 PyeongChang Olympics.
“These Olympics captured everyone’s imagination in ways no one could have predicted,” said Molly Solomon, the executive producer and president of NBC Olympics Production. “The settings were stunningly beautiful, providing a spectacular backdrop for the intense competition. The technology – including enhanced audio and drones – coupled with the unprecedented access we had to athletes and their lives allowed us to take the audience inside their stories in fresh, meaningful ways. And Team USA represented the best of every one of us, giving us so much to look forward to for many Olympic Games to come.”
Added NBC Olympics prexy Gary Zenkel: “The Milan Cortina Olympics proved once again that the American audience will gather in large numbers over 17 days to experience this unmatched global competition. These Winter Games — superbly hosted across northern Italy, and produced and distributed by a team of 2,700 — reached blockbuster U.S. audiences of more than 50 million viewers each day, continuing the media dominance we experienced less than two years ago at the Paris Olympics. We can’t wait for the return of the Olympics to the United States with the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles in 2028 and are ecstatic to be the U.S. media home of five Olympic Games over the next decade.”
The Winter Olympics wrapped what NBCU was calling “Legendary February,” with the Winter Olympics, Super Bowl LX and the NBA All-Star Game, all in the same month.
“Beginning with the February 1 debut of Sunday Night Basketball, our NBC Sports and Olympics personnel delivered a truly ‘Legendary February’ to our audiences on NBC, Telemundo, Peacock and Versant’s USA Network and CNBC that definitely exceeded our expectations,” said NBC Sports president Rick Cordella.
With that schedule of sports events, Peacock is boasting it best month ever, helping bolster entertainment fare like “The Burbs,” which had Peacock’s highest first-day original debut. Also, four of Peacock’s top 10 usage days of all time and seven of its top 10 largest reach days took place during the Milan Cortina Olympics.