Live From Paris 2024: NBC Olympics Mark Lazarus, Rick Cordella and Molly Solomon on the Success of the Paris Games Lazarus says Billion Dollar Lab drives ad sales but also lays foundation for future live events By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director
Friday, August 2, 2024 - 4:27 am
Print This Story
The past three Olympic Games, in South Korea, Japan, and China, challenged the NBC Olympics team (and viewers) with vast time zone differences and, of course, the Covid pandemic. So nearly everyone was waiting to see how the Paris Games would do not only ratings wise but in terms of an actual event with crowds at full capacity and one of the world's most beautiful cities as a backdrop.
On Thursday afternoon in Paris key NBC executives involved with the Games, Mark Lazarus, Chairman NBCUniversal Media Group; Rick Cordella, President, NBC Sports, and Molly Solomon, Executive Producer and President of NBC Olympics Production, held a media call to discuss all of those things and more with the media.
Lazarus said that the enthusiasm in Paris for the Olympics is reminiscent of the London 2012 Games and that with average viewership of 34 million viewers in the U.S. (up 79% from the Tokyo Games in 2021) NBC is off to a great start on TV and streaming.
The view from the NBC Olympics Primetime and Today Show sets is about as iconic as a view can get.
Driving that success was targeted marketing and promotion of the athletes, Paris, and Team USA.
As a result, NBC stations have been delivering big numbers for all the athletic competition, as well as their local news and all of their shoulder programming, he said.
And the streaming side has also found success.
At this point, we've got more than eight billion streaming minutes and counting with still plenty of time to continue to grow big numbers on that, he said. And speaking of billions, our ad sales has been very strong [and this is] our biggest ad sales total ever.
With the athletic competitions taking place six hours ahead of the East Coast back home the effort around Primetime coverage is unique and Lazarus credits the team for creating two shows at once: following the live action during the day and then creating the primetime show which airs in the U.S. when the city of lights is asleep and resting up for the next day.
It's a really complex piece of work, says Lazarus.
Explains Solomon: Every time you have an Olympics, you get a new time zone, a new puzzle, really, to put together. And we've gone back in time to remind ourselves that America, it doesn't matter if they know the results. They want to know the stories of the athletes and how it played out.
And so that's why the prime time shows, I think, are resonating. You can watch live in the afternoon if you're a sports fan and want a quick hit of it. But when you come back in prime time, you get to see how it all happens.
Mark Lazarus says the dedicated NBC Olympics production team, nearly 3,000 people strong, is driving the success NBC is finding with viewers and advertisers.
The top storyline for U.S. viewers has, clearly, been the performance of the American women's gymnastics team and women's all-around gold medalist Simone Biles. And the way NBC Olympics produced the gymnastics coverage is a perfect example of the live/not-live workflow. The gymnastics events end around 8 pm in Paris which is 2 pm on the East Coast, giving the team there some time to re-package it in the most compelling way possible.
If you've ever watched gymnastics live, it's pretty darn complex and complicated, says Solomon. But we're able to take a few hours to really lay out how it happened and the stories of the athletes [for primetime].
Cordella said Solomon and the team have done a fabulous job of taking prime time and doing something different with it that get viewers to tune in even if they know the results.
Historically the fear has been if results were known people would tune out and go somewhere else, says Cordella. But when you add the entertainment level that we've added to the prime-time show, we're seeing people come back and see it in a different light. We added context around big events, so if you saw Simone and the team win the medal on Tuesday, you're still happy to come back in the evening to see it again.
The Social Media Effect
There was a time, not too long ago, when the perception was that social media and its need for short-form content like highlights would negatively impact TV ratings, especially for events that have already taken place. But Cordella says products like Gold Zone on Peacock, Watch with Alex Cooper, and NBC's collaborations with YouTube and social media platform stars shows a different approach. The goal was to make the 7,000 hours of content sign in a new way on social media.
Molly Solomon has led the effort to turn the NBC Olympics Primetime programming slate more compelling for viewers who may already know the results of the competitions they are watching.
Added Solomon: I think we've very much leaned into the fact that if things are happening on social and you have unique content on social, it all flows through to promoting the Olympics and what's happening. And we really tried to integrate social into our broadcast as well because that's how we all experience media.
She pointed to coverage of French swimmer Leon Marchand's double gold on Wednesday night as an example of how the NBC Olympics team is using social media.
Our creators culled all of the reactions across Paris, and that wasn't possible without doubling down on creators and giving access to what's happening in France on social media, she said. I think it's really paid off in our broadcast presentation.
Lazarus said that social media and streaming is about distilling down th
Most recent headlines
11/12/2025
Dalet, a leading provider of cloud-native, end-to-end media workflow solutions, ...
28/11/2025
Nadia Fall attends the 2025 Sundance Film Festival premiere of Brides at the Egyptian Theatre on January 24, 2025, in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Donyale West/...
28/11/2025
It's easy to ignore those little red update available badges. But when it ...
28/11/2025
WASHINGTON Federal Communications Commission has released a tentative agenda for the December Open Commission Meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 18, 2025 ...
28/11/2025
The Professional Fighters League is looking to super-serve fans of mixed martial...
28/11/2025
Fubo has released in beta on select Roku devices a new feature that lets users display up to four simultaneous streams at once....
28/11/2025
The WNBA playoffs and Week 4 of the NFL regular season highlight the list of live sports events airing on television this weekend....
28/11/2025
The 32nd class of honorees to the B+C Hall of Fame took to the stage at New York's Ziegfeld Ballroom on September 26 for a gala induction event. Click below...
28/11/2025
We hold in our hands the very last Next Text for Next TV, the weekly back-and-fo...
28/11/2025
DirecTV said it made a deal with EchoStar to buy EchoStar's video businesses, including satellite-TV provider Dish TV and virtual MVPD Sling TV, for $1 plus...
28/11/2025
The Broadcasting+Cable Hall of Fame, the premier industry event paying tribute to the influencers, innovators and shining lights of broadcast, cable and streami...
28/11/2025
Friday 28 November 2025
Sky Sports x Slawn drop limited-edition football jersey...
28/11/2025
Rohde & Schwarz shows resilience in a challenging environment, revenue exceeds t...
28/11/2025
Unwrapped: The Toy Show Appeal - airing this Sunday on RT One and RT Player- s...
27/11/2025
LONDON Vizrt has added several AI-driven advanced features offering improved speed, intelligence and accuracy in the newest version of its media asset managemen...
27/11/2025
Prime Video has launched AI-powered video season recaps in a beta version for select English-language Prime Original series in the U.S., a move Amazon is callin...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Netflix's Raat Akeli Hai: The Bansal Murders Marks a Grand...
27/11/2025
27 Nov 2025
GSMA brings M360 Eurasia 2026 to Samarkand in partnership with VEON...
27/11/2025
Tahar Rahim and Izuka Hoyle star in the gripping six-part Sky Original from Acad...
27/11/2025
Thursday 27 November 2025
Sky Arts Reveals the Nation's Greatest Basslines - and Queen Reign Supreme
The UK's most iconic basslines have been revealed...
27/11/2025
Back to All News
Stranger Things 5': Prepare for One Last Adventure With O...
27/11/2025
The media industry has a paradox at its core. It's an industry built on light, color and imagination, yet behind the scenes, it's powered by one of the ...
27/11/2025
Rating reflects rating progress across areas including policies, diversity & inclusion, health & safety and Net Zero leadership
Winchester, UK, 27 November 202...
27/11/2025
What are the industry standards for Retail Media? Kathryn explains that certification is based on the IAB Europe Retail Media Measurement Standards and the IAB ...
27/11/2025
World champion boxer and Irish sporting icon Katie Taylor will be in studio this...
27/11/2025
Roblox, one of the world's most popular online gaming platforms for primary ...
27/11/2025
Black Friday is leveling up. Get ready to score one of the biggest deals of the season - 50% off the first three months of a new GeForce NOW Ultimate membership...
26/11/2025
SVG Sit-Down: Prime Video EP Mike Muriano Previews Massive Black Friday Slate Fe...
26/11/2025
A cinematic snow sculpture at the 1995 Sundance Film Festival. Photo by Randall Michelson...
26/11/2025
Book podcasts are booming. On Spotify, you'll find everything from celebrity book clubs to deep dives with bestselling authors. And in markets where audiobo...
26/11/2025
Mumbai, November 24, 2025: In a first-of-its-kind initiative, JioStar, in collab...
26/11/2025
LONDON Factual content producer ITN Productions has launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins....
26/11/2025
MIAMI TelevisaUnivision said it struck a new multiyear distribution agreement with YouTube TV that includes distribution of TelevisaUnivision's U.S. network...
26/11/2025
OpenDrives, Inc., a leader in software-defined data storage and data services, today announced the launch of the Atlas Corporate Creative Solution. This new Atl...
26/11/2025
Disguise, the industry-leading company powering the world's biggest live performances, is partnering with pioneering LED wall manufacturer DVS to give atten...
26/11/2025
HighField AI, the pioneer in agentic and multimodal automation for broadcast and media production, today announced the expansion of its global channel partner n...
26/11/2025
As high-stakes Premier League fixtures approach and additional premium content launches, with MONO positioning themselves to dominate Thailand's sports stre...
26/11/2025
Hosting a wide variety of events from high-intensity NHL games to complex live music concerts and major entertainment productions, Montreal's 21,000 capacit...
26/11/2025
Vizrt, the leader in live production technology revolutionizing viewer engagement and experience, releases AI-driven advances focusing on speed, intelligence, a...
26/11/2025
ITN Productions, an award-winning factual content producer, today launched a new low-latency IP gallery for news bulletins. Responsible for delivering a leading...
26/11/2025
Ikegami reports ongoing advances throughout 2025 in developing and delivering coordinated television production solutions that maximize quality, versatility and...
26/11/2025
Following the Nov. 21 blackout of NBCUniversal channels on Fubo, the two sides have traded barbs about their inability to reach a new carriage deal....
26/11/2025
LONDON As TV sports rights become increasingly important for both broadcasters and streamers, Ampere Analysis predicts global investment in the genre will surpa...
26/11/2025
LOS ANGELES Vubiquity said it has achieved the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Media & Entertainment Competency as part of the AWS Partner Network (APN). This designa...
26/11/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission's Enforcement Bureau said it has entered into a consent decree with Comcast calling for the cable company t...
26/11/2025
Berklee Named to the Hollywood Reporters Top Music Schools List The publication highlights the college's screen scoring program, industry partnerships, and ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
Animated Series Love Through a Prism' Casts New Light on ...
26/11/2025
Back to All News
NALIP Unveils Fifth Cohort of Director Incubator
Social Impact
26 November 2025
United States
Link copied to clipboard
The National Assoc...
26/11/2025
YouView Achieves Greenly Gold Certification for SustainabilityNov 26, 2025
YouView is proud to announce a Gold Certification award from Greenly for our perform...
Live From Paris 2024: NBC Olympics Mark Lazarus, Rick Cordella and Molly Solomon on the Success of the Paris Games Lazarus says Billion Dollar Lab drives ad sales but also lays foundation for future live events By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director 
