The 2024 Olympics were a big win for TV of all kinds

The Olympics weren’t just good for streaming — they boosted traditional TV viewership, too. Even though the Games in Paris accounted for just three days of Nielsen’s July 2024 report, they led to a 2.3 percent boost in overall TV viewing compared to June and a 3.5 percent increase compared to the same time last year.

During the month, broadcast TV captured 20.3 percent of all viewership, marking a slight increase from last month. It also accounted for more than 22 percent of TV viewing when the Olympics kicked off in the last week of July. As pointed out by The Hollywood Reporter, it’s rare to see an increase in traditional TV viewership in July, as it’s typically one of the slowest months for broadcast and cable TV.

Streaming similarly drew in more eyeballs, making up 41.4 percent of all TV viewing for the month. According to Nielsen, that allowed streaming to increase its share of TV by over one point, breaking the record set in June. Peacock, which exclusively streamed the Olympic Games, saw a 33 percent jump in viewing — the biggest increase Nielsen has seen since it started publishing its streaming reports in 2020.

Despite this increase, YouTube remained the top-performing streaming platform and became the first service to capture more than 10 percent of all TV viewing. Max, Disney Plus, and Prime Video also had notable boosts in viewing thanks to series like House of the Dragon, Bluey, and The Boys.

If both cable and streaming are seeing such big increases based on just three days of the Olympic Games, we’ll likely see an even bigger jump when Nielsen releases its report for the month of August.