How Celebrity Influencers Are Bringing Olympic Gold To NBCU’s Streaming Business

The Paris Olympics are delivering gold for NBCUniversal’s streaming business—and the media behemoth has a tight group of dynamic influencers and celebrity personalities to thank for much of that sparkle.

Viewers to date have consumed 17 billion minutes of summer Games coverage across its digital platforms, most notably Peacock, according to NBCU. That’s a record. In fact, Olympics viewing accounts for eight of Peacock’s 10 most-streamed days in the history of the service. The current Peacock offering—the streamer is delivering 5,000 of NBCU’s overall 7,000 hours of Olympics coverage—is in stark contrast to the Tokyo summer Games in 2021 where Peacock streamed only limited, scattershot coverage with no apparent cohesion.

Not so 2024. This time the coverage is smooth, snappy, and often feels more like a social media scroll than event footage and analysis. And while all eyes are on the world’s elite athletes, the culture is being elevated by personalities who are bringing the cool. For these Games of the XXXIII Olympiad, NBCU understood the assignment: Enlist engaging personalities as correspondents, give them whatever support they need, then step back and let them do what they do best.

Whether it’s Snoop Dogg swimming laps with former Olympian Michael Phelps or touring the Louvre; Alex Cooper, co-creator and host of the podcast “Call Her Daddy,” hosting a streaming-only watch party or sharing BTS interviews with members women’s gymnastics team; or Kevin Hart and Kenan Thompson putting their comedic lens on each day’s events in their Peacock-exclusive highlights show—the party is nonstop, and audiences of all demographics and viewing preferences are welcome.

Peacock is also demonstrating some agility of its own, adjusting and reorganizing video content on the fly. For example, as viewers have been buzzing about Snoop Dogg’s segments, the editorial team set up a scrollable playlist of Snoop clips, according to Wired.

As other media companies look to see how they can emulate NBCU’s gold-winning model, Cooper may just be the most interesting one to watch. While not a traditional television or film staple –yet—like Snoop, Hart and Thompson, the co-founder and host of the podcast “Call Her Daddy” has something just, if not more, dynamic: A large and highly engaged audience across digital platforms.

Aside from continual updates, Cooper took to socials just before the start of the Games to share her new Peacock studio setup with her 3.2 million followers on Instagram and 2 million on TikTok. And she did a “Call Her Daddy” episode with Simone Biles that launched April 17 to start priming the Olympic fever pump.