Smaller
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Audio Recording by George Hahn
The Olympics used to be a slab of TV content. The internet has ground the Games into social media moments.
Things change. When I was a kid, the Summer Olympics were an iconic, quadrennial opportunity to rewatch the moon landing. Another chance to beat the Russians, this time in the medal count. But despite still commanding huge audiences, the five rings feel like a shadow of their former selves.
The Olympics have lost much of what made them the paramount sporting event. The key to an aspirational/luxury brand is the illusion of scarcity, and the Olympics feel less scarce. You no longer have to wait four years, now that the Summer and Winter Games alternate every two years. In 21 months, Comcast will begin marketing the Winter Games in Cortina d’Ampezzo (awesome name). A brand based on scarcity has effectively doubled its supply.
Also, while likely unavoidable, the presence of professionals in almost every sport has diluted the brand and the authenticity amateur athletes brought. The youth-focused events added in recent years, including skateboarding and BMX freestyle, cool as they are, don’t have the mystique of classic Olympic sports such as track and field. It feels as if the Olympics, like the rest of us, are desperately trying to look younger. To be fair, the Games have a history of adding and dropping new and/or weird sports going back to the first modern event in 1896. Firefighting, ballooning, and lifesaving were events in the early days.
Finally, the good guys vs. bad guys rush inspired by the Cold War has faded, and not just for us Americans. Athletes and fans are still proud to represent their countries, of course, but the nationalism seems less ferocious. The whole thing feels … smaller.
It’s a Business
Just before the start of the games, the International Olympic Committee said it was on track to hit its target of $1.2 billion in corporate sponsorships — the IOC says about 30% of its revenue comes from sponsorships; the rest comes from TV rights and licensing. LVMH paid about $163 million to be what the company calls a “creative partner.”
Watching the opening ceremony, two things struck me:
First, Paris isn’t a city, it’s the premier backdrop for any person/place/event trying to create a sense of elegance, sophistication, and exclusivity. The Olympics is the gangster travel ad for the host city, and no tourist destination is an easier sell than Paris.
The second thing: I am a Celine Dion fan.
I’d always dismissed her out of hand, but she gave what may be the performance of 2024. I just read that last sentence and realized I have officially become a senior citizen. Anyway, it was impossible to see her performing solo under the Eiffel Tower, despite the neurological problems that have derailed her career, without thinking of another Olympics moment, a Parkinson’s-wracked Muhammad Ali lighting the cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Big Small Screens
The Olympics are — and always have been — about big, emotional moments. What’s changing is how we watch them. The TV audience has been shrinking for years. The opening ceremony this year brought a U.S. audience of 28.6 million viewers to NBC and its Peacock streaming service. That was significantly more than the 17.9 million who watched the Covid-hobbled 2020 Tokyo opening ceremony, but a steep drop from the peak 40.7 million who watched the London opening in 2012.
NBC paid $7.65 billion in 2014 for broadcast rights through 2032, and, looking at the TV viewership numbers, the IOC is on the better end of the deal. NBC, however, claims it booked $1.2 billion in Olympic ad revenue before the games and says it believes Paris will set a new ad revenue record.
A big engine of that ad revenue is streaming and other online distribution. While the overall viewership numbers are down, the digital share of Olympic viewership is up. NBC is using the Games to jumpstart Peacock, an also-ran in the streaming wars (33 million subscribers vs. Netflix’s 277 million). For the first time, Peacock plans to stream all 329 medal events — 5,000 hours worth of content — live. Streaming coverage of previous games was clunky.
NBC also wants to lock in a piece of the action on other digital platforms, specifically social media it doesn’t own. For the Paris Games, NBC has done digital partnership deals with Meta, Overtime, Roblox, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok, with which it is producing a daily one-hour TikTok Live show, Spotlight on Paris.
On its own, the network itself doesn’t seem to add much value. Watching the Games on linear (broadcast) TV is frustrating. Somebody else is deciding what you’re going to watch — a producer decides you’re going to see race-walking instead of surfing. On Peacock, you can be your own producer.
This year the technology caught up with the content. The shift toward streaming has cultivated more engaged audiences. Viewers actively choosing what and when to watch has led to greater engagement and more targeted advertising opportunities. I’d rather sit on the couch, let someone else decide, complain about it, and be pelted by ads about my restless legs or opioid-induced constipation. But I digress.
Linear TV used to be the entire story; now it’s just one of three ways to watch — broadcast, streaming, and social media. Increasingly, it’s becoming less of a distribution channel and more of a content generator that feeds video to the insatiable streaming and social media platforms.
Not One Story
Every sports organization on the planet from Formula 1 to the National Football League has turned its attention to digital distribution. The Olympics, though, may be better suited to the internet than any other sporting event. Unlike the SuperBowl or the World Cup Final, the Olympics is not an event people will watch from beginning to end. It is instead a huge collection of little stories, human moments.
We’ve watched best friends (Sarah Bacon and Kassidy Cook) win a medal in synchronized diving and Simone Biles take flight. We’ve watched the emotional TikTok of Filipino weightlifter Hidilyn Diaz winning her country’s first-ever gold medal. (Actually, this is from the 2020 Games, but never mind — go watch it.)
Other Paris moments: Ukrainian fencer Olga Kharlan dedicating her bronze medal to her country’s servicemen and women; French swimmer Léon Marchand crushing the competition in front of a home crowd; Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina seeming to walk on air after an epic wave off Tahiti. The good-natured trash talk between members of the U.S. table tennis team and basketball star Anthony Edwards (Edwards refused to believe he wouldn’t win a single point) has been shared nearly 16 million times on X.
I was, no joke, the worst D-1 athlete in UCLA’s history (crew). However, several friends went to the Olympics. These athletes put their life on hold to represent their country at the Games and — outside the romance sports — made huge sacrifices economically to be the best in the world, at something, at that moment. Greatness is in the agency of others, and at the Olympics athletes are competing for something bigger: national pride.
The Olympics do feel smaller than in the 1980s. It may be because we are consuming them now in smaller bites. Some of what made them feel important in the past — particularly the intense us vs. them nationalism of the Reagan era — is gone.
What is still there is the primal drive to compete and the hunger to feel something. In a world increasingly run by old people, it’s inspiring to watch young people pursue excellence for the sake of something bigger than themselves: one another and their countries.
I like Celine Dion, and the Olympics.
Life is so rich,
P.S. Every Wednesday on the Prof G Pod I answer listener questions. This week: Is the U.S. College Price Tag Still Worth It? and Why You Should Say Yes More Often. Listen on Apple or Spotify.
P.P.S. Join a free fireside chat on the Backlash to AI, featuring Blood in the Machine’s Brian Merchant. Bring your questions on copyright issues, job loss, data privacy, humanity’s imminent demise, and more.
“If you like a president who can tell a good couch joke…”
Couldn’t Kamala Harris have found someone with some other skill? Any other skill
Mrs. Walz should make her husband sleep on the couch — forever.
Of course, maybe Walz is already dreaming of spending his nights on the Clinton-Lewinsky couch.
The summer Olympics feel smaller?? Clearly this is a very specific American take. The Olympics are on screens everywhere in the world and are being actively watched. The athletes are social media influencers in their own right and their stories are being told all over social media. From Caribbean islands having their first medals to what “athletic” bodies actually look like being celebrated, we are consuming a lot of Olympic content in the rest of the world. What’s happening is that American media thinks you need celebrities to get older people to watch when all you need is to let the athletes and their fans tell their own stories to a younger audience.
For all the billions NBC is spending I wish their mobile app and Peacock experience was better. The Android app rarely opens consistently saying I don’t have an internet connection. As for Peacock, the technology exists that they can tag specific events with the 3-4 hour package they offer. I can watch game replays of 15-20 highlight plays for NFL, or any other sport, on my Firestick, so why can’t I narrow down to just the finals of an event within that 4 hour replay block? Instead I am having to fast forward trying to find it and then sit through two minutes of commercials multiple times only to fast forward again trying to find a specific event or race. Since, because of the time difference I often know the result before I can actually sit down to watch it, I wish this could be more efficient.
Hi Scott.
Agree fully. The Olympics do feel smaller this year.
Regards
The Summer Olympics are the only truly global sporting events. In Paris, 204 out of 206 National Olympic committees are represented. Only Russia and Belarus are out. TV audiences are shrinking worldwide but content is consumed differently. The world desperately wants heroes they can identify with and the Olympics does that. Be they Simon Biles or Leo Marchand or any number of them, they make their country proud. Paris is the most beautiful city in the world, I am biased, and Celine the only truly, planetary star, who happens to come from my hometown. She works incredibly hard and is the kindest person on the planet. Looking forward to the LA games!
Great post! This guy gets it👌🏻
Perhaps ironically, besides (as usual) crystalizing some of my own sense toward the games, you’ve also provided the best curated set of links to the moments that matter. Add newsletters to the list of media fragmentation that has made the Olympics less of a must-watch endeavor.
The softening of them versus us dynamic is a good thing for humanity. And shows perhaps that the younger generations are progressing
It would be, but we do have a presidential candidate who calls her opponents — and anyone who isn’t exactly like her base — “weird.” I’d like Democrats’ us vs. them mentality to vanish, too.
This is the first time a presidential hopeless has been that openly obnoxious, but it brings to mind a few obnoxious left-icks I’ve endured acquaintance with over the years, and that’s the message the Democratic Party is sending.
That, and Kamala doesn’t want to tell anyone what she’d do if she finally has the power she’s seeking.
Because Paris is at least 6 hours ahead the only way to watch “Live” is on Peacock. By watching at 1:30 pm live there is no reason to watch in Primetime. And if I choose to watch some beach volleyball matches on replay that is available as well. But why is Rowdy Gaines (swimming commentator) always seem like he is snorting cocaine?
We consume nearly everything in smaller chunks. I’m not going to sit through 30 minutes of commercials to get to 15 minutes of actual competition. I’m going to find a video of the clips I want to watch. This is a natural progression as sports became nothing more than an unending ad. The only thing the Super Bowl has it it’s favor it that some people watch it specifically for the ads. Nobody watches the any other sporting event just for the ads.
I don’t know if I’d say it’s the loss of the us vs them of years past, it’s more of “ain’t nobody got time for those commercials and endless announcer ramblings”. Just give me the competition highlights cause I got stuff to do.
Your columns are excellent, when you avoid the political rants ( both sides do not represent the best of Americans ). The shift in how Olympic games are organized and watched, as you astutely analyzed , mirrors larger trends in society. Professional sports, certainly not in the past, are governed by casino gambling off-line and constant statistical analysis on the viewing screen. The Christmas Extravaganza, at Radio City Music Hall, used to be two hours and underscored the beautiful Nativity story. No more as both have been reduced in time. I was first attracted to your writing on financial matters and trends. If you stay the course on these issues, many more will be attracted to that message. Political focus is not your strength at all, especially when half of your patrons leave annoyed with you. Your platform is too big for political party comments, and belongs better in your private voting beliefs. This Olympics reflection was truly outstanding, from my point of view.
“Only write things I like and agree with.” Get over yourself buddy.
A good writer makes you examine your positions even if you don’t agree. Many of us call that critical thinking.
Pretty sure there was no critical thinking involved in the writing of his last column. Especially when he touted the number of jobs “created” under the current administration.
As usual, Scott, you’ve crystallized my thoughts exactly! Adding professionals to the games has diminished them. Trying to compete with Red Bull and the X-games, has diminished them. Once any endeavor’s mission switches from the endeavor defined by the mission, to being a business, it is diminished.
But we have still enjoyed the spectacle and are grateful for the opportunity to watch so many of our local kids shine on a global stage. All of these beautiful kids! Gives me hope, because the kids are alright!
I encourage anyone who can afford it to go to an Olympics. We live in Atlanta and attended many events of the 96 games. It changed the exodus to the burbs that was happening here and transformed the city. Burbs still doing well by the way. I wish every city could benefit this way.
You are a force for good in the world. “Servicemen and women” rolls off the tongue, and denies reality, about as well as “birthing person”. The translation used ‘defenders’.
I loved this post. Thanks for making me smile on a very warm day in Ontario. I also love Celine Dion and the Olympics.
My favorite Olympics take so far… US gets 5 place in shooting, out of the medals… If they held the competition in a school we would have taken gold!
” … the six rings feel like a shadow of their former selves.”
unless i missed a joke you intended, there are only five rings, not six.
how did your editorial staff not catch this?!
Thank you for flagging this. We have corrected to five rings on the site.
Thanks Peter, was about to ask the same question.
I remember watching the Montreal games as a child, and how summer itself felt suspended while we sat inside and watched the coverage every single day until the Olympic torch was extinguished. As a born Canadian who has become a US citizen, I measure my true national identity by the opening ceremonies of each Olympics and which team gives me that jolt of excitement and a sense of belonging. Team Canada always makes me feel like a Canadian!
Imane Khelif Wins First-Ever Gold Medal In Freestyle Domestic Violence
Aug 1, 2024
PARIS — Algerian boxer Imane Khelif made history this week by becoming the first-ever Olympian to win the gold medal in the new Freestyle Domestic Violence event.
“This is for all of us,” an emotional Khelif said, raising his bloody fist triumphantly as the broken body of his small female opponent lay before him. “I’m proud that my superior man-shoulders and bone structure gave me the ability to beat up this small woman. This is what the sport of freestyle domestic violence is all about.”
She was born with a vagina. Men are not born with a vagina.
Scott, 5 rings in the Olympic logo, their brand has diminished for you to the extent that you can’t recall their logo 😂
Great insight, as always. Also, wait, six rings? Is there a secret ring in there?
Thank you for flagging this. We have corrected to five rings on the site.
Just because….Celine Dion is an amazing and kind human. I worked for her for a short bit and she was everything that I thought she wouldn’t be. Eating In-And-Out Burgers – Animal Style! Her family and “team” were just stellar. I definitely have a soft spot in my heart for her and all she does. Get well Celine….you just made the world smile, yet again.
It was such a beautiful, moving performance… Kelly Clarkson crystallized exactly how I felt, when she was asked to comment and simply said, “I just can’t talk right now.” Wow, so much respect for Celine as an artist and talented performer.
Thanks, Prof G. This made me think lack of interest in the competitive success of our nation in the Olympics is also aligned with the waning self-respect of the nation.
Like all these events which are distracting, we need a pause. Plus all the drugging make this feel unclean. It is too much hype and too little beauty.