When it comes to significant events, NBC has its fair share.
The network is home to the Olympics in even-numbered years, is part of the Super Bowl rotation, is the exclusive broadcaster of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, and will air its 25th consecutive Kentucky Derby on Saturday. That’s not too shabby, especially considering the network also gets the biggest NFL game of the week and will add the NBA to its live sports portfolio next season.
And with all of these live events spread out over a calendar year, NBC sees value in using one to promote the others. “We continue to be that home for live, the aura of nowness, and it’s something that you see that’s pretty consistent on our platforms,” NBCUniversal CMO of television and streaming Jenny Storms told The Hollywood Reporter.
The race portion of last year’s Kentucky Derby averaged 16.7 million viewers for NBC, peaking at over 20 million for the photo finish. With audiences like that hard to come by this time of year as people traditionally turn off their televisions as the weather warms up, the Derby can serve as a valuable promotional vehicle for NBC.
“We will be launching this Winter Olympics piece of creative … we’re excited to really drive the conversation and get it going around Milano Cortina Olympics,” Storms told THR. “We have a new piece of content celebrating the NBA’s return to NBC and Peacock; we have an exciting sneak peek of the new NBC show Destination X, which will be coming out of the Kentucky Derby; we’ve got great promotion for Peacock’s Poker Face, which five days after Kentucky Derby, on May 8, we’ll launch season two; and again, leaning into food, we have new NBC and Peacock show Yes, Chef with Jose Andres and Martha Stewart, that’s also going to be promoted heavily within the Derby.”
Perhaps the best part of using the Kentucky Derby as a promotional vehicle is the demographics the race reaches. The breakdown between male and female Derby viewers is about 50-50, and the race attracts an audience with diverse interests.
“What’s special about the derby is certainly the confluence of sports, entertainment, fashion, food, and so much more that it brings to life. It delivers much more of a cultural moment in a can’t-miss event beyond sports,” Storms said.
Last year, NBC re-upped its media rights agreement for the Triple Crown’s opening leg and will now air the event through 2032. In a time where eight-figure audiences are hard to come by, the Kentucky Derby remains as reliable as ever, making the property all the more valuable in today’s fractured media environment.