There was a looming media question that hung over the 2024 Olympics in Paris as the world arrived in the French capital:
Could the Olympics get its groove back?
Prior to Paris, Olympic viewership had tumbled significantly in recent cycles, including a disastrous 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics, which averaged 11.4 million across all NBC Universal platforms, the least-watched Olympics in the modern era.
But Paris changed that. The 2024 Summer Olympics averaged a whopping 30.7 million viewers per day, the most-watched Olympics since London in 2012.
There is important context. NBC rolled up its numbers for the Paris Games to include live viewership from 2-5 p.m. ET featuring NBC, Peacock, USA Network, CNBC, E!, Paris Extra 1, Paris Extra 2 and additional NBCU digital platforms, as well as U.S. prime-time viewership on NBC, Peacock and USA Network.
The network said the revised methodology was a more accurate way to present viewership information for Paris because viewers had never before had the option to watch a live fully produced Olympics on NBC or Peacock in the daytime in addition to the traditional prime time (which was a curated presentation given the competition day had ended in Paris, six hours ahead of Eastern time in the U.S.). That’s how they sold it to advertisers.
NBC is planning a similar strategy for its coverage of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, given the event is in the same time zone as Paris.
On Wednesday, just a couple of days past the year-out date, NBCUniversal announced that the NBC broadcast network and streaming service Peacock will be the company’s primary platforms for the 2026 Winter Games, which will run from February 6 through February 22, 2026. (NBCU said details of its coverage of the Milan Cortina Paralympics, which run March 6-15, 2026, will be released at a later date.) The Opening Ceremony will be held Feb. 6, 2026, at the San Siro, home to soccer giants AC Milan and Inter Milan.
If Lindsey Vonn, pictured competing during the FIS Alpine World Ski Championships women’s team combined this month, can participate in the 2026 Olympics, it could drive a surge of viewers to watch her race. (Alexis Boichard / Agence Zoom / Getty Images)
Broadly, those plans include top events airing live during the day on NBC, and the the entire Olympics streaming live on Peacock. There will be an Olympics prime-time show, “Primetime in Milan,” which will be a curated presentation of the events. NBCU will bring back the popular “Gold Zone” whip-around coverage on Peacock, as well as the Multiview feature.
“The time zone allows us to mimic our Paris programming and coverage strategy on NBC and Peacock,” NBC Sports President Rick Cordella said.
The NBC broadcast network will offer similar hours of coverage from Milan Cortina as it did in Paris. There will be at least five hours of daytime coverage every day, including live coverage of figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, speed skating and more. NBC’s prime-time show will run three hours each night.
Peacock will be the streaming home of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games and feature every sport and event live (including early morning alpine skiing). Peacock’s coverage will include full-event replays; all linear programming, curated video clips; virtual channels and exclusive original programming. USA Network will serve as the 24/7 home of Team USA and CNBC will provide coverage on the weekends and weekdays once its business day programming concludes.
The Milan Cortina Games will be the fourth time Italy has hosted an Olympic Games including the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina, the 1960 Rome Summer Olympics and 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin.
Expect NBC to go very heavy on U.S. favorites for medals such as Mikaela Shiffrin, the winningest alpine skier of all time and two-time Olympic gold medalist; world champion speed skater Jordan Stolz; figure skaters Ilia Malinin and Madison Chock and Evan Bates; and snowboarding icon Chloe Kim. Milan Cortina also marks the return of NHL players to Olympic hockey competition for the first time since Sochi 2014, so that will draw significant interest, as will the U.S.-Canada rivalry in women’s hockey.
If you want a big viewership wild card, it is Lindsey Vonn. If the three-time Olympic medalist can make the U.S. team, it’s game-changing audience attention for NBC when she skis.
(Top photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto / Getty Images)
