Men’s sports received more coverage than women’s sports by almost a 3 to 1 margin during NBC’s primetime Paris Summer Olympic broadcast on Wednesday, August 7, 2024.

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

Men’s track and field had more than 1 hour and 12 minutes with coverage of the semifinals of the 110-meter hurdles, the 400-meter hurdles, and the 200-meter race as well as the finals in the 400-meters where American Quincy Hall won gold and the 3000-meter steeplechase where Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali won gold and Team USA’s Kenneth Rooks won silver.

Men’s diving had more than 15 and a half minutes of the semifinals in the 3 meter springboard competition.

Three women’s events had at least one minute of coverage:

Women’s track and field had more than 23 minutes with coverage of the 400-meter semifinals, the pole vault final where Australian Nina Kennedy won gold and American Katie Moon won silver, and the medal ceremony for the 200-meter race where Team USA’s Gabby Thomas won gold.

Women’s artistic swimming had more than 6 and a half minutes of the team event showing the American’s acrobatic routine in its entirety and coverage of them winning the silver medal.

Women cycling had more than 1 and a half minutes of Team USA winning gold in the team pursuit event.

There were no summer mixed sex events presented. There, however, was coverage of a mixed sex winter event with 3 minutes and 26 seconds devoted to the Team Figure Skating Event. After the demotion of the Russian team to bronze for the 2022 Games due to the doping scandal and Kamila Valieva’s involvement, the American team was moved up to gold and the Japanese team was moved up to silver. There was a medal ceremony in Paris, complete with the American national anthem, which was shown in primetime. As this involved a winter sport, it is not included in the overall Summer Games report.

Overall, coverage of men’s events accounted for 72.85% of NBC’s primetime Olympic broadcast. Women’s events received 27.15% of NBC’s coverage. Mixed sex events (e.g., equestrian) received 0.00% of NBC’s coverage.

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After 13 nights, when mixed sex events are excluded, men’s events have received 46.40% of NBC’s primetime broadcast coverage compared to 53.60% 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 post-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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