(Bloomberg) -- The Olympics opening ceremony on Friday attracted a US TV audience of 28.6 million viewers on NBC and the Peacock streaming service, the highest audience since London 12 years ago, according to the network.
More than 2.5 million watched on Peacock, making it the No. 1 entertainment event on the four-year-old service. An additional 666,000 people watched in Spanish on Telemundo Deportes.
The ceremony, which featured dancers, singers, musicians and acrobats performing amid Parisian landmarks, drew 60% more viewers than the 17.9 million who watched the opening of the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The recent peak for opening ceremony viewing was London in 2012, which had an audience of 40.7 million, according to Nielsen.
The action took place along the city’s famous River Seine, with thousands of athletes floating in boats for 3.7 miles (6 kilometers) rather than marching into a stadium. Many, including Team USA flagbearers Coco Gauff and LeBron James, were forced to don ponchos because of the rain.
The ceremony was “probably the largest live TV production ever,” according to Yiannis Exarchos, the head of the Olympic Broadcasting Services.
“There are 170 broadcasters around the world — we expect half of the world will be watching,” Exarchos said in a July 25 interview.
Orange SA, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., Intel Corp. and Samsung Electronics Co. were among the companies helping to broadcast the games.
Contract Extension
NBC, which is owned by Comcast Corp., signed a $7.65 billion contract extension in 2014 to maintain its broadcast rights to the Olympics through 2032. The network has booked $1.2 billion in ad revenue for the event, the most in Olympics history.
All 329 medal events in Paris will be available for streaming on Peacock, which will provide viewers with features unavailable on cable television, such as watching as many as four events at once on one screen and receiving daily event recaps from the AI-generated voice of commentator Al Michaels.
Following the 2021 games, when Peacock failed to offer many of the events viewers were looking for, NBC is providing full-access coverage on the platform. Peacock remains far behind rival services from Netflix Inc., Amazon.com Inc. and Walt Disney Co. in total subscribers.
The first Olympic competitions began July 24, featuring contests in archery, soccer, handball and rugby. The 19-day event will conclude on Aug. 11.
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