Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming platform, is introducing a set of new features to enhance the viewing experience for the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. The announcement was made during the company’s One24 tech showcase on Wednesday, where executives highlighted the new aspects of the streaming experience for both consumers and advertisers.
Peacock is set to provide extensive coverage of the Paris Olympics, which will take place from July 26 to August 11. The platform will offer more than 5,000 hours of live coverage, including all 329 medal events.
One of the key features being introduced is Live Actions, which allows viewers to select events during live and primetime coverage and create their own personalized feed consisting of only the sports they are interested in watching. During live coverage, viewers can either continue watching live or stay with “whip-around” coverage, a traditional approach that has come under scrutiny in the age of social media, where results are often known in advance, potentially diminishing the excitement of the coverage.
Another notable feature is Discovery Multiview, which aims to help viewers track multiple simultaneous live events within a single frame. Up to four competitions in sports such as soccer, track & field, and wrestling will be available on the same screen. While this concept has gained popularity on platforms like YouTube TV, Peacock claims to be the first standalone streaming app to offer a multi-view experience.
Peacock’s history with the Olympics has been somewhat challenging. The service launched in spring 2020, but the anticipated boost from the Tokyo Olympics was delayed due to the Covid-19 pandemic until the following year. The coverage in that debut year faced criticism from viewers and media observers for being difficult to navigate and incomplete, partly due to a strategic bias toward linear networks and the NBC broadcast flagship. However, the Beijing Winter Games of 2022 saw a complete revamp of the strategy, with Peacock carrying all events.
Despite lagging behind major competitors like Disney+ and Max in terms of subscribers, Peacock has reported steady gains in recent quarters. Comcast, NBCU’s parent company, reported that Peacock ended 2023 with 31 million subscribers.
