Paris 2024 Olympics Boost Broadcast to 22% of Total TV Usage in August, Nielsen Says

The Paris 2024 Olympics took home the gold in Nielsen’s Gauge report for the month of August, which saw the Summer Games boost viewing in the broadcast category by 8% month-over-month and 11% year-over-year to a total share of 22%.

The global sporting event also benefitted Peacock with a total viewership share increase of 39% month-over-month and nearly double the amount of viewers ages 35-49. The streamer finished the month with a total 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.

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.

When looking at streaming as a whole, the category has gained 2.7 points since August 2023 and is up 11% year-over-year with a total share of 41%, though the month was slow overall for new original content.

YouTube continued to dominate with another platform-best TV share of 10.6% in August — the largest year-over-year difference for any streaming platform and an increase of 1.5 points. Meanwhile, Netflix’s share fell 6% month-over-month to a total share of 7.9%. Prime Video took the third place spot with a share of 3.1%, followed by Hulu at 2.4%, Disney+ at 2.3%, Peacock at 2.1%, Tubi at 1.8%, The Roku Channel at 1.7%, Max at 1.3%, Paramount+ at 1.1% and Pluto TV at 0.7%.

Netflix’s “The Umbrella Academy” was the only original program to break into Nielsen’s Top 10 for the month with 3.9 billion viewing minutes, while the rest went to acquired titles, including “Prison Break” (5.4 billion minutes across Netflix and Paramount+). “Bluey” on Disney+ generated over 4 billion viewing minutes to secure the second most watched streaming title that month and helped drive an 8% increase for Disney+. Some of the boost can also be attributed to Hulu content available within the Disney+ platform to certain package subscribers.

While cable fell 2% month-over-month to a total share of 26.3%, the category saw boost in viewership from the Democratic National Convention, which aired over four nights across multiple networks during the final week of the August interval, with its share rising to 27.9% during that period.

The DNC also contributed to the top cable programs in August, with MSNBC owning the Top 11 cable telecasts of the month, and 14 of the Top 15. ESPN’s coverage of the Florida State vs. Georgia Tech football matchup snagged the 12th spot.

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