NBCUniversal's Peacock To Showcase The Paris Olympics

The Paris Olympics will offer Comcast another chance to lift its streaming platform, Peacock, as it aims to not only attract more subscribers but keep them.

Although this Olympics is the third since Peacock debuted in 2020, it’s becoming the first real opportunity for Comcast’s NBCUniversal, CNBC’s parent company, to use its long-standing U.S. media rights to boost the streaming service.

“In some ways, Comcast is starting with a clean slate, in that this will be the first Olympics for Peacock since the games were blown up by the pandemic and distorted time zones,” said analyst Craig Moffett of MoffettNathanson. “But they’ve also had the opportunity to learn quite a bit, so they will be much better prepared for capitalizing on the Olympics than before.”

CNBC reports there are a handful of reasons this Olympics looks better for Peacock than recent Games, such as the favorable time zone — Paris is six hours ahead of the East Coast in the U.S., versus 13 hours for Tokyo in 2021. The end of the restrictions from the early days of the Covid pandemic is also a big factor, along with the allure of the host city of Paris.

But most importantly, Peacock will air the entirety of the Summer Olympics for the first time.

“It was different times, since Peacock didn’t have the rights to show all of the Olympics back in 2021,” said Molly Solomon, NBC’s executive producer of the Olympics. “But we’re in a different era of streaming with rights deals. Peacock is now the streaming home of the Olympics, and there’s no limits if you’re a super fan or casual fan, since it will all be available on Peacock.”