NBC’s Paralympic Games coverage draws 15.4 million viewers on cable channels

More than 15 million people watched part or all of the 2024 Summer Paralympics from Paris on NBC and associated cable channels, Comcast’s NBC Sports said this week.

The Games, which began in late August and ended earlier this month, drew an average audience of 15.4 million viewers over their 12 days, which included the opening and closing ceremonies in Paris, NBC Sports said in a statement.

Peacock offered the most comprehensive coverage of the 2024 Summer Paralympics, which included live streams of all competition events, multi-view channels and a live stream called the “Gold Zone” that offered live previews throughout the morning and afternoon. Peacock had a total audience of 1.2 million viewers, NBC Sports said, citing data from Adobe Analytics; the figure was about 31% higher than the 2020 Summer Paralympics in Tokyo, which were postponed until 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Paralympics averaged 1.8 million viewers in prime time on NBC, the network said, citing Nielsen data. Unlike the 2024 Summer Olympics, which ran from late July to early August, NBC did not offer full, daily coverage of the 2024 Summer Paralympics, choosing to air the opening and closing ceremonies on CNBC and relegating most of the games to its cable networks and Peacock. Coverage of the Paralympics on USA Network averaged about 162,000 viewers, a 113% increase over the 2020 Paralympics, which were largely carried on the now-shuttered NBC Sports Network (NBCSN).

Related: Special coverage of the 2024 Summer Games

“From the host city to the athletes’ performances to the return of friends and families, Paris 2024 set a new standard for excellence and will be considered one of the most spectacular Paralympic Games ever,” Molly Solomon, executive producer and president of NBC Olympics & Paralympics Production, said in a statement. “We knew our coverage had to live up to the moment, so we produced more hours than ever before, delivered every sport on Peacock, added innovations like the Gold Zone and multi-view for the first time, and had more commentators on-site than ever before. The result was record-breaking viewership, setting a high bar for LA28 that we can’t wait to surpass once again.”

As with the 2024 Summer Olympics, the Paralympics had the largest audience on WDSU (Channel 6), the Hearst-owned NBC affiliate in New Orleans. Fort Myers, Florida, was the market with the second-largest audience on NBC, followed by Greenville-Spartanburg and Indianapolis.