The long-awaited 2024 XXXIII Summer Olympiad in Paris, France aired by NBCUniversal and on Peacock from July 26 to August 11. The Paralympic games followed, airing from August 28 to September 8, also on NBC and Peacock. For those in the entertainment industry, the games offered a prime opportunity to introduce new features in interactivity and accessibility.
This year’s Olympic games placed a welcoming emphasis on offering a more experiential viewing experience along with improved accessibility features so that viewers with all different needs and preferences could have the best experience possible. The heightened ability for viewers to have more control over their experience highlights the evolution of video distribution — meeting audience demands, maximizing viewership and engagement, and promoting healthy industry competition within the entire ecosystem.
Expanded coverage for Hispanic audiences
NBCU-owned network Telemundo successfully expanded coverage for Spanish-language television by implementing several new features this year. Telemundo was streamed for a record 3.1 billion minutes and saw a viewership increase of 18% compared to the 2020 Tokyo games.
- Telemundo aired live coverage of the Opening Ceremony for the first time.
- Across Telemundo, Universo, Peacock, Telemundo.com, and the Telemundo App broke records for available programming hours to Spanish speakers – over 315 hours and 2,000 short-form pieces of content were available including highlights, recaps, and interviews.
- Telemundo Deportes aired traditionally covered sports – soccer, boxing, basketball, and beach volleyball – but also expanded into swimming, gymnastics, and diving this year.
- Telemundo was the home of Fútbol Olímpico and aired live soccer matches for both Men’s and Women’s tournaments.
- Telemundo also aired two-hour late-night shows every weekday from July 26th to August 11th.
Peacock also offered a Spanish-Language Olympic Hub powered by Telemundo Deportes:
- Peacock livestreamed all Telemundo and Universo programming.
- Peacock also offered 150 hours of full-event replays and short-form content in Spanish, including content around Hispanic athletes and countries.
This emphasis on improving reach to Hispanic audiences is significant because of the buying power of this segment. According to Parks Associates research, Hispanic audiences are particularly interested in streaming entertainment. As of Q1 2024, Hispanic households subscribe to an average of 6.4 SVOD services compared to the 4.8 of all US internet households.
By tapping into this highly enthusiastic audience, streaming services can boost overall viewership numbers and build a connection with this segment, resulting in higher satisfaction and loyalty.
Interactive opportunities for the Olympics and beyond
During Olympic programming, service providers offered new ways for viewers to engage with the content and help set the stage for later execution not only in sports entertainment, but across all genres. Broadcasters using the Play Anywhere interactive overlay platform were able to implement interactive features for some sporting events such as fencing, archery, and equestrian. Features included the following:
- Pop-up quizzes testing viewers’ knowledge with event-related trivia and ranking them against other participating viewers.
- Side window with an all-encompassing schedule of events throughout the day and week as well as the schedule within each specific sporting category.
- Side window with a live medal count and breakout by sport and country as well as the ability to look up results for various individual sports events and matches by category.
- Side window with Paris 2024 merchandise for sale such as apparel and accessories.
Interactivity enhances engagement by creating a more immersive and personalized experience for users, which keeps them invested in the content and opens opportunities for advertising, driving higher conversion rates and brand loyalty.
Advancements in accessibility
NBCUniversal offered more accessibility features than ever, including closed captioning, audio description, and digital content accessibility.
- Closed captioning was available in English and Spanish for all Olympic and Paralympic events, including digital livestreams.
- NBCU partnered with Descriptive Video Works to offer audio description services in stereo for all coverage on NBC including daytime, primetime, and late-night content as well as the Gold Zone on Peacock.
- Content accessibility was also taken into consideration with improved keyboard navigation, color contrast, and support for screen readers on NBC.com, NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Sports app.
In partnership with Huge, NBCUniversal also introduced “OLI,” an AI assistant built to help viewers easily find where, when, and how to watch specific live events and programming throughout the Olympics.
- In the US, users could ask OLI questions using natural language when navigating NBC.com, NBCOlympics.com, NBCSports.com, usanetwork.com, and today.com
- OLI worked across NBCU broadcast and cable channels as well as Peacock
- OLI could also optimize responses with personalized viewing suggestions based on the time of day, time zone, and event schedule.
- OLI could also answer questions about other information regarding programming such as how to watch coverage of specific athletes, teams, and countries.
The Olympic games are a celebration of culture, resilience, and peace in addition to athleticism. This year’s focus on offering improved accessibility features provides a more inclusive and personalized viewing experience. This reinforces the overall Olympic mission of respect and sets a new bar for streaming services as they continuously invest in product development to improve the viewer experience.
What’s coming next: Immersive video
While not available yet this Olympics, immersive video will likely be in the next evolution of the video viewing experience. At the beginning of July, Apple started to release “Immersive Video,” available exclusively on Apple Vision Pro devices. Content in this format is 3D-enabled, presents in 8K resolution, and offers 180-degree field of view with Spatial Audio, resulting in an unprecedented sensation of story immersion.
- Initial Immersive Video releases consisted of a walk with elephants in Kenya’s Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, a flight over volcanoes and waterfalls in Hawaii, and a hot air balloon ride over Cappadocia, Türkiye, with more scenes to come soon.
- In partnership with National Geographic, Disney+ subscribers with an Apple Vision Pro can now also be transported to Iceland’s Thingvellir National Park and can even interact with the scene.
- Disney+ is also producing four 3D films based on the Marvel franchise using photogrammetry and gigapixel panoramas.
- Later in 2024, Apple is to release a scripted short film set during World War II called Submerged, a short film of the 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend, an exclusive experience for fans of The Weeknd, and a trip to surf the heaviest wave in the world with Red Bull in Teahupo’o, Tahiti.
Olympic coverage could eventually include immersive videos that bring the fan experience even closer. Fans could experience each race, game, or match as if they are there in-person and part of the action.
Immersive video is also a great opportunity to improve accessibility and offer an even more personalized and engaging experience. For instance, viewers with disabilities or even those just preferring a specific viewing orientation could benefit from the ability to customize the perspective to best fit the needs and preferences of the viewer. The added ability to switch among different cameras or angles as well as commentary can create a highly engaging, inclusive, and revolutionary viewing experience for all live events that places more control in the hands of the viewer.
Sarah Lee is a research analyst at Parks Associates. Parks Associates is a market research and consulting company and has extensive consumer and industry research on broadband, pay tv, streaming and connected home markets. The international research firm hosts the annual conference Future of Video: The Business of Streaming, in Los Angeles, CA in November 2024. For more information visit www.parksassociates.com
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