Addicted to the Olympics? A turnaround for the Peacock streaming service probably contributed

Four boxes with live Olympics action filled Peacock's screen during its “Gold Zone” show one afternoon this week — one showing women hammer toss competitors, another with long jumpers going aloft, a third with racers leaping hurdles and the last showing the minutes counting down in the U.S.-Germany women's soccer match.

Occasionally producers punch up a concentrated look at one event. This was a gripping display of the breadth of Olympic sports, and it was hard not to get hooked.

Millions of Americans have shared similar experiences during the past week and half, powering a much-needed rebound for Peacock, the streaming service that was often the target of ridicule during Olympics in Tokyo in 2021 and Beijing in 2022.

“It's been a real turnaround,” said Mark Lazarus, chairman of the NBC Universal Media Group. With several days of competition remaining, NBC has surpassed 17 billion minutes streamed for the Paris games — the vast majority on Peacock — exceeding the streaming minutes for all of the previous Olympics combined.

Rather than detract from it, the chief executive believes Peacock has helped NBC's television outlets to a ratings performance in Paris that has network honchos giddy with joy.

New thinking, new results

Lazarus ordered a teardown of Peacock's Olympics operation, memorably conceding in June that consumers had reacted with “the big digital middle finger” to their past work. Peacock was hard to navigate and plagued with glitches. NBC also admits to failing to deliver on promises that Peacock would be the comprehensive Olympics experience, balking at showing some live events for fear it would cannibalize TV audiences — a traditional line of thinking that Paris has proven outmoded.

Led by a new executive team that included Matt Strauss, chairman of NBC's direct to consumer unit, and Peacock President Kelly Campbell, they studied other sports and streaming outfits for new ideas.

“This in many ways is not their first bite of the apple, but they had a number of years to learn,” said Craig Moffett, analyst for the technology and media research firm MoffettNathanson. It's clear they learned several smart lessons, he said.

The whip-around “Gold Zone” product, which has proven enormously popular in Paris, is a knockoff of DirecTV's NFL “Red Zone,” including some of the same personnel. It matches the original's high-adrenaline pace, taking viewers to noteworthy events — particularly when medals are decided.

Peacock offers several multi-view screens that show a handful of live events happening at the same time. While “Gold Zone” is curated by producers, on multi-view consumers can click on one of the boxes to concentrate on one event in particular. In effect, viewers can produce their own show.

Most importantly, they're effective navigation tools leading people into all Peacock has to offer. Many viewers are entranced by events they knew little about, like when Peacock on Tuesday highlighted Cuban Mijain Lopez winning a fifth straight gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling. Such an achievement would be lost on television, since NBC focuses on high-profile sports like gymnastics, swimming and track.

“As a lifelong Olympic watcher and a lifelong Olympic broadcast/streaming complainer, really have to hand it to NBC for how incredible Peacock has been this go around,” Brandon Wall, a social media director at CBS News, wrote on X.

Kelsey McKinney of defector.com, which covers sports and culture, wrote that Peacock had created the perfect Olympic experience for someone like her.

“This is such a sensible approach — one that understands and respects the desires of an average viewer — it's almost hard to believe an American network came up with it,” McKinney wrote.

The Games themselves have lent a hand

The Paris games have also afforded Peacock some advantages, including strong performances by the U.S. team and a return to crowds at events after COVID-19 restrictions. A time zone six hours ahead of the eastern United States also helped; NBC would have hated that in the past, since there are no live events available for its prime-time show, but it's a bonanza for Peacock users in the afternoon.

More people working at home in the post-COVID era is also helping Peacock, Lazarus speculated.

“It's probably not hard to imagine a lot more people are watching the Olympics from their home offices than they would from cubicles,” he said.

Peacock offers other Olympics features, including a personalized highlights package narrated by an artificial intelligence-generated voice of Al Michaels, and a comic look with Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson. Since the games have started, it has begun offering a collection of Snoop Dogg moments from NBC broadcasts, and a service that shows medal ceremonies since consumers requested it.

Peacock had 33 million paid subscribers earlier this year. NBC would not say how many people have signed up for the Olympics.

The key question for NBC Universal is how many of those new subscribers will be motivated to stick with Peacock after the games end. They don't necessarily need a lot of those new customers to stay for it to be considered a success, Moffett said.

Lazarus said that some 70 percent of people who signed up for the service because it was broadcasting an NFL playoff game last winter wound up keeping their subscriptions for at least three months.

“I feel really good about it,” he said.

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David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://twitter.com/dbauder.