Men’s sports received more coverage than women’s sports by more than a 2 to 1 margin during NBC’s primetime Paris Summer Olympic broadcast on Friday, August 2, 2024.

Three men’s events had at least one minute of broadcast coverage.

Men’s diving had just over 21 minutes of airtime featuring the 3 meter synchronized springboard competition, where China’s Wang Zongyuan and Long Daoy won gold, while Mexico’s Juan Celaya and Osmar Olvera took silver, missing gold by 2.07 points. Team USA’s Greg Duncan and Tyler Downs ended up in 8^th place.

Men’s swimming came in at over 32 minutes, including a pre-event feature on Team USA’s Caeleb Dressel. Swimming coverage included the 50 freestyle, where Dressel missed the podium, and the 100 butterfly semifinals, where Dressel failed to advance. The 200 individual medley finals were also shown as France’s Leon Marchand set an Olympic Record and won his 4^th gold medal.

Men’s track and field had just over 13 minutes of coverage including the 10,000 meter final, where American Grant Fisher won bronze, the first medal for the U.S. in this event since 2012 and the fourth since the race was introduced at the 1912 Stockholm Games. Qualifications for shot put were shown along with a feature on Team USA’s Ryan Crouser. Heats for the 1,500 meter were also covered.

Two women’s events had at least one minute of broadcast coverage.

Women’s Swimming came in at just over 19 minutes with the final in the 200 backstroke as Australia’s Kaylee McKeown set an Olympic record while American Regan Smith won her third silver medal of the Games and teammate Phoebe Brown missed the medal stand by .04 seconds. The semifinals in the 200 individual medley were also shown as Team USA’s Kate Douglass and Alex Walsh advanced to the finals.

Women’s Track and Field had just over 13 minutes for coverage for the discus qualifications and the heats for the 100 meter, including a race featuring American Sha’Carri Richardson.

Three mixed sex events were covered:

Track and Field had more than 12 minutes devoted to the 4×400 mixed relay semifinals where the U.S. set a new world record.

Less than one minute was spent on the following mixed sex events: equestrian, where Team USA won the silver medal in team jumping, and archery, where Americans won bronze in the mixed team event.

Overall, coverage of men’s events accounted for 62.15% of NBC’s primetime Olympic broadcast. Women’s events received 27.09% of NBC’s coverage. Mixed sex events (e.g., equestrian) received 10.76% of NBC’s coverage.

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After 8 nights, when mixed sex events are excluded, men’s events have received 45.57% of NBC’s primetime broadcast coverage compared to 54.43% for women’s events.

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Regular updates about NBC’s coverage of men’s and women’s sports on its primetime broadcast will be posted throughout the 2024 Paris Summer Games on FiveRingTV.com. Additional updates will also be posted on the @FiveRingTV X feed. A mid-Olympic report, with complete sport-by-sport coverage breakdowns, will also be issued.

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Method: The percentage of primetime devoted to men’s, women’s and mixed sex sports is calculated by a single researcher, utilizing a stopwatch and DVR or DVD time codes, measuring (to the millisecond) the total amount of time devoted to each event. Any time spent at the actual athletic site, on a profile about an athlete, promos about a specific athlete or sport, and host commentary about a specific sport or athlete is recorded. Split screens combining commercials and live coverage are included in the calculations, but commercial breaks are not included. The NBC broadcast network East Coast feed is used for the calculations. Olympic coverage on cable networks and live streaming are not included. Network overruns beyond 11:00pm up to the break for local news are included within the calculations.

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