Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony Attracts 28.6M Viewers, Up 60% from Tokyo

STAMFORD, Conn. —NBCUniversal’s presentation of the Paris Olympics Opening Ceremony on NBC and Peacock was the most-watched Opening Ceremony for a Summer Olympics since London 2012 with a Total Audience Delivery (TAD) of 28.6 million viewers, according to custom fast national data from Nielsen and Adobe Analytics. In addition, Telemundo Deportes delivered 666,000 viewers for the Opening Ceremony.

“Last night’s Opening Ceremony, one of the most ambitious and complex in Olympic history, was a spectacle for those in attendance in Paris, delivered a huge audience across our NBCU platforms, and set records for Peacock,” said NBC Sports president Rick Cordella. “Thanks to the tireless effort of our production and engineering teams, and extensive promotion, we are off to a strong start that is in line with the expectations of our NBC stations, and distribution and advertising partners. We are in great position as we look forward to the next two weeks of competition.”

With coverage live in the afternoon followed by a special primetime presentation on July 26, the Opening Ceremony audience of 28.6 million viewers on NBC and Peacock was more than 10 million viewers (60%) larger than the Tokyo Opening Ceremony (17.9 million) and an 8% increase over the Rio Opening Ceremony (26.5 million), NBCU reported on Sunday, July 26.

The Opening Ceremony was also the most-streamed ever (more than 2.5 million viewers) and ranks as the No. 1 entertainment event in Peacock history, NBCU reported.

Led by Peacock, Paris Olympics streaming consumption across NBCUniversal platforms exceeded 1 billion minutes through Friday – six times greater than the Tokyo Olympics through the comparable time frame, the company also said.

The strong audience metrics were accompanied by positive data for advertisers, NBCU also stressed. Brands advertising in the Opening Ceremony generated +320% greater search volume than brands in the Tokyo Opening Ceremony according to EDO data.

Total Audience Delivery is based upon live-plus-same day custom fast national figures from Nielsen and digital data from Adobe Analytics. Official viewership will be available on Monday.