ESPN beat NBC/Yahoo in Comscore digital traffic in Olympics months for first time

While most of the discussion about ESPN is what airs on that linear TV channel, it’s worth keeping in mind that’s only a fraction of the wider company (a division of parent company Disney).

Beyond the ESPN linear channel are other associated channels (ESPN2, ESPNEWS, ESPNU, ESPN Deportes, SEC Network, ACC Network), their broadcast network partner at ABC, and their digital offerings.

Those digital offerings range from the ESPN+ subscription service to ESPN.com content to the ESPN app to social media accounts and more. Digital was one area where ESPN posted a notable win recently, even despite going up against NBC/Yahoo offerings around the 2024 Paris Olympics (where NBC had rightsholder status for highlights and more).

(Yes, NBC and Yahoo are separate companies, but they combine their numbers for Comscore purposes and have a longstanding content-sharing agreement.)

In August and September, ESPN beat NBC/Yahoo for the first time during the Olympic months. And they did so without any Olympics highlights rights (they did offer both on-the-ground journalism and wire service reporting, but not highlights). That’s notable, as highlights rights are something they’ve sometimes had in the past (albeit briefly). But they did better this time around even without those rights, as ESPN vice president (brand strategy and content research) Flora Kelly noted Wednesday.

#1 in August is a milestone for ESPN Digital. It is the first time we were able to maintain the #1 spot during Olympic months. More impressive we stayed #1 with zero Olympics video highlights (no digital rights). https://t.co/GG4i3C0G4d

— Flora Kelly (@ESPNFlora) October 2, 2024

As AA’s Ben Koo mentioned Wednesday, the NBC/Yahoo partnership was often ahead overall under these numbers before ESPN passed them awhile back. But NBC/Yahoo was usually able to retake the No. 1 slot during Olympics months, even when ESPN had deals for highlights.

Up until a ~decade ago, Yahoo Sports was regularly ahead of ESPN in the Comscore digital sports audience rankings.

ESPN overtook them and hasn’t looked back but because of Yahoo’s partnership with NBC, they often beat them during Olympic months which they did here (Feb 2022) pic.twitter.com/tOq3tT0tVt

— Ben Koo (@bkoo) July 18, 2024

Of course, there are caveats. One is that the Olympics’ particular cross-month timing this time around (they ran from July 26 to Aug. 11) may have had an impact. The 2016 Rio Olympics were held entirely in August. The 2020 Tokyo Olympics (actually held in 2021) ran from July 23 to August 8 but the specific month break here seems more beneficial to ESPN.

A lot of Olympics interest comes near the start, especially around the Opening Ceremonies, and having a whole first week-plus in July seems better for NBC under these metrics versus five days. August is perhaps a more beneficial time for ESPN than July given the leadup to college and pro football, although NBC and Yahoo certainly see their own high traffic numbers around those sports. So more of the Games in August might have boosted ESPN versus NBC/Yahoo.

It’s also worth mentioning that digital numbers and methodology are even more argued about than TV ratings (which is saying something). These particular numbers combine an awful lot of buckets, from YouTube to social accounts to apps and websites.

But, despite all that, the particular Comscore ones here are widely used, and this certainly works comparatively to past numbers with the same methodology.

Maybe this all speaks to the declining values of highlights rights or ESPN’s success elsewhere. But the biggest takeaway might be that ESPN had very strong digital months without Olympics highlights rights. So don’t expect the company to try and acquire them again anytime soon, especially given the headaches they ran into in the past.

[ESPN PR]