When NBC unveiled its core promotional spot for the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics, one thing was immediately clear: the network is leaning heavily into the star power of women athletes. The spot, which debuted during the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, focused exclusively on women athletes. Narrated by British pop star Dua Lipa, the spot highlights a handful of the “incredible women” that will be competing in Milan-Cortina, including Lindsey Vonn, Mikaela Shiffrin, Chloe Kim, and Alysa Liu. Missing from the promotion spot? Men’s sports.
The decision of NBC – the U.S. rights-holding broadcaster of the Games – to focus early promotion exclusively on women athletes sends a powerful message about how the network values the marketability of women’s sports and athletes. For NBC, key decisions like this are certainly not symbolic gestures. The network has made a substantial and long-term financial commitment to the Olympics, broadcasting every Summer Olympics since 1988 and every Winter Games since 2002. In 2014, NBC signed a $7.75B deal covering all Summer and Winter Games through 2032 and more recently, the IOC announced a new $3B agreement with NBC for the 2034 Salt Lake City Winter Games and the 2036 Summer Olympics.
That said, it’s safe to assume that the marketing choices that NBC is making around Olympic marketing are very intentional.
Beyond just having a big financial stake in the Olympics, the data backs up the strategic choice to uplift the women athletes of the Winter Games. Audience research has also shown consistent interest in women’s sports during Olympic competition. Historically, the Olympics have provided women athletes with a larger share of media exposure than they receive in non-Olympic settings. During the Tokyo 2020 Games, women accounted for 59.1% of primetime Olympic coverage, and that visibility translated into measurable engagement. According to Zoomph, women athletes drove much of the online conversation during Tokyo with key examples including Sunisa Lee generating $6M in social value from just nine Instagram posts, Simone Biles producing more than 100M organic impressions and $2.7M in social value from a single tweet, and Katie Ledecky generating 8.5M organic impressions with a 12.83% engagement rate.
The pattern continued most recently in Paris 2024 when women’s events accounted for approximately 51-56% of NBC’s primetime coverage and generated 53% of total social media engagement. Women brought home 67 of Team USA’s 126 medals, led by stars like Katie Ledecky, Simone Biles, and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Globally, overall Olympic ratings increased more than 82% compared to Tokyo, with women’s events often outperforming marquee men’s competitions. The women’s soccer gold medal match averaged 9M viewers, making it the most-watched soccer match in Olympic history, while the women’s gymnastics team final nearly hit 13M viewers.
As the 2026 Winter Olympics approach, NBC’s women-focused promotional strategy reflects established audience behavior, media performance, and commercial results from recent Olympic cycles. The network’s women-first Milan-Cortina promo feels less like a bold experiment and more like an obvious next step.
Ahead of Milan-Cortina, one thing is clear: the biggest stars of the Games are poised to be women.
MEET CAROLINE FITZGERALD
Caroline Fitzgerald is a contributing writer for TOGETHXR.com and a leading expert in women’s sports business and gender equity. A Sports Business Journal "2024 Power Player in Women's Sports," she covers the forces shaping the industry’s next era of growth.
