Leveraging programmatic technology aided in NBCU’s record ad revenue totals, enabled increase in number of advertisers by 90%.

Companies will now work together to bring the approach to the NFL Season; FreeWheel’s DSP Beeswax is certified for buyers looking to appear in live events including Sunday Night Football.

FreeWheel, a global technology platform for the TV industry, announced the results of its work powering the advertising of the 2024 Paris Olympics. Throughout the event, FreeWheel served a record number of ads and programmatic impressions for a live event, enabling NBCUniversal to further open inventory to new advertisers, with an increase in the number of advertisers participating by 90%.

“Streaming has changed the way we all watch our favorite live programming, and programmatic has changed the way those ads are bought, sold, and delivered”

As NBCU’s digital ad insertion and programmatic platform for the 2024 Olympics, FreeWheel was responsible for enabling programmatic access to advertisers while delivering on all of NBCU’s direct sold and sponsorship ad commitments. According to NBCU, the 2024 Olympics drove record ad revenue for the company and reached a daily average of 30.4 million viewers, an increase of 82% compared to the Tokyo Olympics. Led by Peacock, 23.5 billion minutes of Paris Olympics Games coverage were streamed.

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“FreeWheel’s programmatic approach to the 2024 Paris Olympic Games provided opportunities for new brands to be part of the most spectacular event of year,” said Alison Levin, President of Advertising & Partnerships, NBCUniversal. “With them as partners, we not only delivered a more seamless advertising experience for our viewers, but we were also able to secure the highest advertising revenue in the history of the Games. This is a whole new approach for live advertising that allows for a diverse group of clients to engage with consumers, and we look forward to building on this success with FreeWheel in the future.”

Delivering impressions in a seamless way across screens is particularly challenging for live events, which have unexpected spikes in viewership, and run in a no-fail environment. In the 2024 Olympics, FreeWheel broke concurrency records regularly throughout the event, peaking during Team USA Men’s Basketball Final.

“Streaming has changed the way we all watch our favorite live programming, and programmatic has changed the way those ads are bought, sold, and delivered,” said Mark McKee, General Manager, FreeWheel. “The 2024 Olympics games have opened up the door for programmatic advertising in ways we’ve never seen before. With NBCU, our goal was to bring new technology, better infrastructure, and greater scale to this year’s Olympics, and the numbers speak for themselves. In many ways, these Olympics were a watershed moment for advertising—NBCU has ushered in a new era of programmatic advertising, and the industry is watching.”

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As advertisers today try to uncover the most cost- and time-efficient ways to activate live event advertising in streaming environments, many are turning to programmatic buying, which can provide greater automation and increased spend efficiency than traditional approaches.

FreeWheel has a proven track record powering live events, many with programmatic buying. Leading up to the Olympics, FreeWheel has powered the advertising for the World Cup, March Madness, NFL Playoffs, and Super Bowl, as well as seasonal and daily live events and programming. For the upcoming NFL season, NBCU will be leveraging FreeWheel’s new suite of live product capabilities to better enable their programmatic transactions and expand advertiser diversity by increasing inventory opportunities; additionally, FreeWheel’s Beeswax DSP is certified for buyers looking to appear in live events including Sunday Night Football.