NBCU democratizes access to Olympics for second straight Games

The 2024 Summer Olympics were a major success for NBCUniversal. Viewership was up 82% compared to the Tokyo Games, every event was streamed on Peacock for the first time, nearly 2 million people signed up for Peacock during the first three days and programmatic advertising made its Olympic debut.

Now, NBCU is looking to build upon that momentum.

For the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, NBCU is opening up programmatic access once again, with The Trade Desk among seven DSPs offering biddable inventory. The move continues NBCU’s push to democratize access to the Games — as 90% of advertisers that bought programmatically were new.

“[Paris] was an incredible learning ground, both on ad innovation and on the Peacock experience, but also on the access to the inventory,” said Alison Levin, president of advertising and partnerships at NBCUniversal. “Our goal is democratizing access to our big moments through our creative. We’re excited to continue that journey into Milan.”

The Trade Desk, which owns The Current, will offer expanded buying flexibility for advertisers, including 1:1 private marketplace deals and no minimums on library deals.

“The Olympics is one of the biggest cultural moments in the world,” Jordan Kaar, director of inventory management at The Trade Desk, said. “If you don’t have the budgets to be in other massive sporting events, you’ve got so much ample opportunity to get in on the Olympics.”

NBC’s golden sports year

Next year is shaping up to be a landmark year for NBCU. Chairman of Global Advertising and Partnerships Mark Marshall called it a lineup that will “never happen again.” Throughout 2026, NBCU will carry the Olympics, the Super Bowl, the FIFA World Cup (on Telemundo), the NBA All-Star Game and the MLB’s debut on NBC.

To capitalize on that scale, NBCU is unveiling new measurement tools, including LIVE Total Impact and the Performance Insights Hub. The company describes Total Impact as “the industry’s first cross-platform tool designed to leverage the real-time viewership of live tentpole moments and extend that engagement across NBCUniversal’s full ecosystem.”

NBCU executives argue that TV measurement hasn’t received the credit it deserves for driving full-funnel impact. LIVE Total Impact and the Performance Insights Hub aim to change that narrative. Both tools will be previewed during NBCU’s 2026 upfronts before officially launching later in the year.

Early tests show promise. A major telecom brand saw big success in testing the products, with a 10% lift in awareness, a 77% jump in search, and retargeted viewers who saw ads during a game visited the brand’s website at a 6.8 times higher rate than viewers who weren’t retargeted.

NBCUniversal executive Ryan McConville likened major live sporting events to throwing a big rock into a lake; the broadcast is the splash and measurement captures the ripples that follow.

“The ability to not just look at the moment itself, but then using data and technology to follow that ripple and show how your initial investment is actually working over time was an opportunity for both us and for advertisers to really understand how these big investments function and deliver results for them,” McConville said.

Matching the action on the field to ads

NBCU is also diving into contextual targeting on Peacock using AI that allows it to match game action to the content of an ad. For example, when a game goes to commercial after a fumble in an NFL game, viewers might see an ad for a paper towel company where someone drops a drink.

The goal is to show the right ad to the right person at the right time.

And it ties back to how measurement and real-time optimization are key parts to the programmatic strategy within the Olympics. That level of decisioning has a higher likelihood of increasing the chance for advertisers to see greater results.

“Buyers gain real-time visibility into performance,” Kaar said. “That means they don’t have to wait months to evaluate a campaign; they can invest more in what’s working as soon as they see a strong return.”

The Current is owned and operated by The Trade Desk Inc.