AI transcript
0:00:03 Support for the show comes from ServiceNow,
0:00:05 the AI platform for business transformation.
0:00:07 You’ve heard the big hype around AI.
0:00:09 The truth is AI is only as powerful
0:00:11 as the platform it’s built into.
0:00:13 ServiceNow is the platform that puts AI
0:00:15 to work for people across your business,
0:00:18 removing friction and frustration for your employees,
0:00:20 supercharging productivity for your developers,
0:00:22 providing intelligent tools for your service agents
0:00:24 to make customers happier.
0:00:27 All built into a single platform you can use right now.
0:00:29 That’s why the world works with ServiceNow.
0:00:33 Visit servicenow.com/aiforpeople to learn more.
0:00:38 – We interrupt your podcast to bring you breaking news.
0:00:40 Tim’s classic breakfast sandwiches are just $3
0:00:42 when you buy any size coffee.
0:00:43 You heard that right, $3.
0:00:45 Your mornings will never be the same,
0:00:47 plus tax Canada only, limited time only,
0:00:49 Terms Apply, see app for details.
0:00:53 ♪ It’s time for Tim’s ♪
0:00:57 – I’m Scott Galloway and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:01 – The Olympics used to be a slab of television content.
0:01:05 The internet is grounded into social media moments.
0:01:08 – Smaller, as read by George Hahn.
0:01:13 Things change.
0:01:15 When I was a kid, the summer Olympics
0:01:17 were an iconic quadrennial opportunity
0:01:20 to rewatch the moon landing.
0:01:22 Another chance to beat the Russians,
0:01:25 this time in the medal count.
0:01:28 But despite still commanding huge audiences,
0:01:31 the five rings feel like a shadow of their former selves.
0:01:36 The Olympics have lost much of what made them
0:01:38 the Paramounts sporting event.
0:01:41 The key to an aspirational luxury brand
0:01:44 is the illusion of scarcity.
0:01:48 And the Olympics feel less scarce.
0:01:50 You no longer have to wait four years
0:01:52 now that the summer and winter games
0:01:55 alternate every two years.
0:01:58 In 21 months, Comcast will begin marketing
0:02:03 the winter games in Cortina D’Ampezzo, awesome name.
0:02:08 A brand based on scarcity has effectively doubled its supply.
0:02:12 Also, while likely unavoidable,
0:02:15 the presence of professionals in almost every sport
0:02:18 has diluted the brand and the authenticity
0:02:20 amateur athletes brought.
0:02:23 The youth-focused events added in recent years,
0:02:26 including skateboarding and BMX freestyle,
0:02:28 cool as they are, don’t have the mystique
0:02:33 of classic Olympic sports such as track and field.
0:02:36 It feels as if the Olympics, like the rest of us,
0:02:39 are desperately trying to look younger.
0:02:41 To be fair, the games have a history of adding
0:02:44 and dropping new and or weird sports
0:02:48 going back to the first modern event in 1896.
0:02:50 Firefighting, ballooning, and lifesaving
0:02:53 were events in the early days.
0:02:57 Finally, the good guys versus bad guys rush,
0:02:59 inspired by the Cold War, has faded,
0:03:02 and not just for us Americans.
0:03:04 Athletes and fans are still proud
0:03:06 to represent their countries, of course,
0:03:10 but the nationalism seems less ferocious.
0:03:14 The whole thing feels smaller.
0:03:16 Just before the start of the games,
0:03:18 the International Olympic Committee
0:03:20 said it was on track to hit its target
0:03:25 of $1.2 billion in corporate sponsorships.
0:03:29 The IOC says about 30% of its revenue
0:03:30 comes from sponsorships.
0:03:33 The rest comes from TV rights and licensing.
0:03:38 LVMH paid about $163 million
0:03:42 to be what the company calls a creative partner.
0:03:46 Watching the opening ceremony, two things struck me.
0:03:49 First, Paris isn’t a city.
0:03:54 It’s the premier backdrop for any person, place, event,
0:03:56 trying to create a sense of elegance,
0:03:59 sophistication, and exclusivity.
0:04:03 The Olympics is the gangster travel ad for the host city,
0:04:08 and no tourist destination is an easier sell than Paris.
0:04:13 The second thing, I’m a Celine Dion fan.
0:04:15 I’d always dismissed her out of hand,
0:04:19 but she gave what may be the performance of 2024.
0:04:30 I just read that last sentence and realized
0:04:33 I have officially become a senior citizen.
0:04:37 Anyway, it was impossible to see her performing solo
0:04:40 under the Eiffel Tower, despite the neurological problems
0:04:42 that have derailed her career
0:04:45 without thinking of another Olympics moment.
0:04:47 A Parkinson’s-wracked Muhammad Ali
0:04:51 lighting the cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
0:04:56 The Olympics are, and always have been,
0:05:00 about big emotional moments.
0:05:03 What’s changing is how we watch them.
0:05:06 The TV audience has been shrinking for years.
0:05:08 The opening ceremony this year
0:05:13 brought a U.S. audience of 28.6 million viewers to NBC
0:05:16 and its Peacock streaming service.
0:05:20 That was significantly more than the 17.9 million
0:05:24 who watched the COVID-hobbled 2020 Tokyo opening ceremony,
0:05:29 but a steep drop from the peak 40.7 million
0:05:32 who watched the London opening in 2012.
0:05:38 NBC paid $7.65 billion in 2014 for broadcast rights
0:05:44 through 2032, and looking at the TV viewership numbers,
0:05:47 the IOC is on the better end of the deal.
0:05:52 NBC, however, claims it booked $1.2 billion
0:05:54 in Olympic ad revenue before the Games
0:05:59 and says it believes Paris will set a new ad revenue record.
0:06:03 A big engine of that ad revenue is streaming
0:06:06 and other online distribution.
0:06:08 While the overall viewership numbers are down,
0:06:11 the digital share of Olympic viewership is up.
0:06:15 NBC is using the games to jumpstart Peacock
0:06:17 and also ran in the streaming wars,
0:06:22 33 million subscribers versus Netflix’s 277 million.
0:06:25 For the first time, Peacock plans to stream
0:06:30 all 329 metal events, 5,000 hours worth of content, live.
0:06:37 Streaming coverage of previous games was clunky.
0:06:40 NBC also wants to lock in a piece of the action
0:06:42 on other digital platforms,
0:06:45 specifically social media it doesn’t own.
0:06:50 For the Paris Games, NBC has done digital partnership deals
0:06:55 with Meta, Overtime, Roblox, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok,
0:07:00 with which it is producing a daily one-hour TikTok live show,
0:07:02 Spotlight on Paris.
0:07:05 On its own, the network itself
0:07:07 doesn’t seem to add much value.
0:07:12 Watching the games on linear broadcast TV is frustrating.
0:07:15 Somebody else is deciding what you’re going to watch.
0:07:18 A producer decides you’re going to see race walking
0:07:20 instead of surfing.
0:07:23 On Peacock, you can be your own producer.
0:07:27 This year, the technology caught up with the content.
0:07:29 The shift towards streaming has cultivated
0:07:32 more engaged audiences.
0:07:35 Viewers actively choosing what and when to watch
0:07:37 has led to greater engagement
0:07:41 and more targeted advertising opportunities.
0:07:44 I’d rather sit on the couch, let someone else decide,
0:07:46 complain about it, and be pelted by ads
0:07:49 about my restless legs or opioid-induced constipation,
0:07:51 but I digress.
0:07:56 Linear TV used to be the entire story.
0:07:59 Now it’s just one of three ways to watch.
0:08:01 Broadcast, streaming, and social media.
0:08:06 Increasingly, it’s becoming less of a distribution channel
0:08:09 and more of a content generator that feeds video
0:08:12 to the insatiable streaming and social media platforms.
0:08:16 Every sports organization on the planet
0:08:19 from Formula One to the National Football League
0:08:23 has turned its attention to digital distribution.
0:08:26 The Olympics, though, may be better suited
0:08:29 to the internet than any other sporting event.
0:08:32 Unlike the Super Bowl or the World Cup final,
0:08:34 the Olympics is not an event people will watch
0:08:36 from beginning to end.
0:08:40 It is, instead, a huge collection of little stories,
0:08:41 human moments.
0:08:46 We’ve watched best friends, Sarah Bacon and Cassidy Cook,
0:08:49 win a medal in synchronized diving,
0:08:52 and Simone Biles take flight.
0:08:53 We’ve watched the emotional TikTok
0:08:56 of Filipino weightlifter, Hidelin Diaz,
0:08:59 winning her country’s first ever gold medal.
0:09:01 Actually, this is from the 2020 games,
0:09:03 but never mind, go watch it.
0:09:09 Other Paris moments, Ukrainian fencer Olga Carlon
0:09:10 dedicating her bronze medal
0:09:13 to her country’s servicemen and women.
0:09:16 French swimmer, Leon Marchand,
0:09:19 crushing the competition in front of a huge crowd,
0:09:22 Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina,
0:09:27 seeming to walk on air after an epic wave off Tahiti.
0:09:29 The good-natured trash talk between members
0:09:31 of the U.S. table tennis team
0:09:33 and basketball star, Anthony Edwards,
0:09:36 Edwards refused to believe he wouldn’t win a single point,
0:09:41 has been shared nearly 16 million times on X.
0:09:48 I was, no joke, the worst D1 athlete in UCLA’s history.
0:09:53 Crew, however, several friends went to the Olympics.
0:09:55 These athletes put their life on hold
0:09:57 to represent their country at the games
0:10:00 and, outside the romance sports,
0:10:03 made huge sacrifices economically
0:10:07 to be the best in the world at something, at that moment.
0:10:10 Greatness is in the agency of others,
0:10:12 and at the Olympics,
0:10:15 athletes are competing for something bigger.
0:10:16 National pride.
0:10:22 The Olympics do feel smaller than in the 1980s.
0:10:24 It may be because we are consuming them now
0:10:27 in smaller bites.
0:10:30 Some of what made them feel important in the past,
0:10:34 particularly the intense us versus them nationalism
0:10:36 of the Reagan era, is gone.
0:10:42 What is still there is the primal drive to compete
0:10:44 and the hunger to feel something.
0:10:48 In a world increasingly run by old people,
0:10:51 it’s inspiring to watch young people pursue excellence
0:10:55 for the sake of something bigger than themselves.
0:10:58 One another and their countries.
0:11:03 I like Celine Dion and the Olympics.
0:11:08 Life is so rich.
0:11:10 (gentle music)
0:11:13 (gentle music)
0:11:15 (gentle music)
0:11:18 (gentle music)
0:00:05 the AI platform for business transformation.
0:00:07 You’ve heard the big hype around AI.
0:00:09 The truth is AI is only as powerful
0:00:11 as the platform it’s built into.
0:00:13 ServiceNow is the platform that puts AI
0:00:15 to work for people across your business,
0:00:18 removing friction and frustration for your employees,
0:00:20 supercharging productivity for your developers,
0:00:22 providing intelligent tools for your service agents
0:00:24 to make customers happier.
0:00:27 All built into a single platform you can use right now.
0:00:29 That’s why the world works with ServiceNow.
0:00:33 Visit servicenow.com/aiforpeople to learn more.
0:00:38 – We interrupt your podcast to bring you breaking news.
0:00:40 Tim’s classic breakfast sandwiches are just $3
0:00:42 when you buy any size coffee.
0:00:43 You heard that right, $3.
0:00:45 Your mornings will never be the same,
0:00:47 plus tax Canada only, limited time only,
0:00:49 Terms Apply, see app for details.
0:00:53 ♪ It’s time for Tim’s ♪
0:00:57 – I’m Scott Galloway and this is No Mercy, No Malice.
0:01:01 – The Olympics used to be a slab of television content.
0:01:05 The internet is grounded into social media moments.
0:01:08 – Smaller, as read by George Hahn.
0:01:13 Things change.
0:01:15 When I was a kid, the summer Olympics
0:01:17 were an iconic quadrennial opportunity
0:01:20 to rewatch the moon landing.
0:01:22 Another chance to beat the Russians,
0:01:25 this time in the medal count.
0:01:28 But despite still commanding huge audiences,
0:01:31 the five rings feel like a shadow of their former selves.
0:01:36 The Olympics have lost much of what made them
0:01:38 the Paramounts sporting event.
0:01:41 The key to an aspirational luxury brand
0:01:44 is the illusion of scarcity.
0:01:48 And the Olympics feel less scarce.
0:01:50 You no longer have to wait four years
0:01:52 now that the summer and winter games
0:01:55 alternate every two years.
0:01:58 In 21 months, Comcast will begin marketing
0:02:03 the winter games in Cortina D’Ampezzo, awesome name.
0:02:08 A brand based on scarcity has effectively doubled its supply.
0:02:12 Also, while likely unavoidable,
0:02:15 the presence of professionals in almost every sport
0:02:18 has diluted the brand and the authenticity
0:02:20 amateur athletes brought.
0:02:23 The youth-focused events added in recent years,
0:02:26 including skateboarding and BMX freestyle,
0:02:28 cool as they are, don’t have the mystique
0:02:33 of classic Olympic sports such as track and field.
0:02:36 It feels as if the Olympics, like the rest of us,
0:02:39 are desperately trying to look younger.
0:02:41 To be fair, the games have a history of adding
0:02:44 and dropping new and or weird sports
0:02:48 going back to the first modern event in 1896.
0:02:50 Firefighting, ballooning, and lifesaving
0:02:53 were events in the early days.
0:02:57 Finally, the good guys versus bad guys rush,
0:02:59 inspired by the Cold War, has faded,
0:03:02 and not just for us Americans.
0:03:04 Athletes and fans are still proud
0:03:06 to represent their countries, of course,
0:03:10 but the nationalism seems less ferocious.
0:03:14 The whole thing feels smaller.
0:03:16 Just before the start of the games,
0:03:18 the International Olympic Committee
0:03:20 said it was on track to hit its target
0:03:25 of $1.2 billion in corporate sponsorships.
0:03:29 The IOC says about 30% of its revenue
0:03:30 comes from sponsorships.
0:03:33 The rest comes from TV rights and licensing.
0:03:38 LVMH paid about $163 million
0:03:42 to be what the company calls a creative partner.
0:03:46 Watching the opening ceremony, two things struck me.
0:03:49 First, Paris isn’t a city.
0:03:54 It’s the premier backdrop for any person, place, event,
0:03:56 trying to create a sense of elegance,
0:03:59 sophistication, and exclusivity.
0:04:03 The Olympics is the gangster travel ad for the host city,
0:04:08 and no tourist destination is an easier sell than Paris.
0:04:13 The second thing, I’m a Celine Dion fan.
0:04:15 I’d always dismissed her out of hand,
0:04:19 but she gave what may be the performance of 2024.
0:04:30 I just read that last sentence and realized
0:04:33 I have officially become a senior citizen.
0:04:37 Anyway, it was impossible to see her performing solo
0:04:40 under the Eiffel Tower, despite the neurological problems
0:04:42 that have derailed her career
0:04:45 without thinking of another Olympics moment.
0:04:47 A Parkinson’s-wracked Muhammad Ali
0:04:51 lighting the cauldron at the 1996 Atlanta Games.
0:04:56 The Olympics are, and always have been,
0:05:00 about big emotional moments.
0:05:03 What’s changing is how we watch them.
0:05:06 The TV audience has been shrinking for years.
0:05:08 The opening ceremony this year
0:05:13 brought a U.S. audience of 28.6 million viewers to NBC
0:05:16 and its Peacock streaming service.
0:05:20 That was significantly more than the 17.9 million
0:05:24 who watched the COVID-hobbled 2020 Tokyo opening ceremony,
0:05:29 but a steep drop from the peak 40.7 million
0:05:32 who watched the London opening in 2012.
0:05:38 NBC paid $7.65 billion in 2014 for broadcast rights
0:05:44 through 2032, and looking at the TV viewership numbers,
0:05:47 the IOC is on the better end of the deal.
0:05:52 NBC, however, claims it booked $1.2 billion
0:05:54 in Olympic ad revenue before the Games
0:05:59 and says it believes Paris will set a new ad revenue record.
0:06:03 A big engine of that ad revenue is streaming
0:06:06 and other online distribution.
0:06:08 While the overall viewership numbers are down,
0:06:11 the digital share of Olympic viewership is up.
0:06:15 NBC is using the games to jumpstart Peacock
0:06:17 and also ran in the streaming wars,
0:06:22 33 million subscribers versus Netflix’s 277 million.
0:06:25 For the first time, Peacock plans to stream
0:06:30 all 329 metal events, 5,000 hours worth of content, live.
0:06:37 Streaming coverage of previous games was clunky.
0:06:40 NBC also wants to lock in a piece of the action
0:06:42 on other digital platforms,
0:06:45 specifically social media it doesn’t own.
0:06:50 For the Paris Games, NBC has done digital partnership deals
0:06:55 with Meta, Overtime, Roblox, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok,
0:07:00 with which it is producing a daily one-hour TikTok live show,
0:07:02 Spotlight on Paris.
0:07:05 On its own, the network itself
0:07:07 doesn’t seem to add much value.
0:07:12 Watching the games on linear broadcast TV is frustrating.
0:07:15 Somebody else is deciding what you’re going to watch.
0:07:18 A producer decides you’re going to see race walking
0:07:20 instead of surfing.
0:07:23 On Peacock, you can be your own producer.
0:07:27 This year, the technology caught up with the content.
0:07:29 The shift towards streaming has cultivated
0:07:32 more engaged audiences.
0:07:35 Viewers actively choosing what and when to watch
0:07:37 has led to greater engagement
0:07:41 and more targeted advertising opportunities.
0:07:44 I’d rather sit on the couch, let someone else decide,
0:07:46 complain about it, and be pelted by ads
0:07:49 about my restless legs or opioid-induced constipation,
0:07:51 but I digress.
0:07:56 Linear TV used to be the entire story.
0:07:59 Now it’s just one of three ways to watch.
0:08:01 Broadcast, streaming, and social media.
0:08:06 Increasingly, it’s becoming less of a distribution channel
0:08:09 and more of a content generator that feeds video
0:08:12 to the insatiable streaming and social media platforms.
0:08:16 Every sports organization on the planet
0:08:19 from Formula One to the National Football League
0:08:23 has turned its attention to digital distribution.
0:08:26 The Olympics, though, may be better suited
0:08:29 to the internet than any other sporting event.
0:08:32 Unlike the Super Bowl or the World Cup final,
0:08:34 the Olympics is not an event people will watch
0:08:36 from beginning to end.
0:08:40 It is, instead, a huge collection of little stories,
0:08:41 human moments.
0:08:46 We’ve watched best friends, Sarah Bacon and Cassidy Cook,
0:08:49 win a medal in synchronized diving,
0:08:52 and Simone Biles take flight.
0:08:53 We’ve watched the emotional TikTok
0:08:56 of Filipino weightlifter, Hidelin Diaz,
0:08:59 winning her country’s first ever gold medal.
0:09:01 Actually, this is from the 2020 games,
0:09:03 but never mind, go watch it.
0:09:09 Other Paris moments, Ukrainian fencer Olga Carlon
0:09:10 dedicating her bronze medal
0:09:13 to her country’s servicemen and women.
0:09:16 French swimmer, Leon Marchand,
0:09:19 crushing the competition in front of a huge crowd,
0:09:22 Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina,
0:09:27 seeming to walk on air after an epic wave off Tahiti.
0:09:29 The good-natured trash talk between members
0:09:31 of the U.S. table tennis team
0:09:33 and basketball star, Anthony Edwards,
0:09:36 Edwards refused to believe he wouldn’t win a single point,
0:09:41 has been shared nearly 16 million times on X.
0:09:48 I was, no joke, the worst D1 athlete in UCLA’s history.
0:09:53 Crew, however, several friends went to the Olympics.
0:09:55 These athletes put their life on hold
0:09:57 to represent their country at the games
0:10:00 and, outside the romance sports,
0:10:03 made huge sacrifices economically
0:10:07 to be the best in the world at something, at that moment.
0:10:10 Greatness is in the agency of others,
0:10:12 and at the Olympics,
0:10:15 athletes are competing for something bigger.
0:10:16 National pride.
0:10:22 The Olympics do feel smaller than in the 1980s.
0:10:24 It may be because we are consuming them now
0:10:27 in smaller bites.
0:10:30 Some of what made them feel important in the past,
0:10:34 particularly the intense us versus them nationalism
0:10:36 of the Reagan era, is gone.
0:10:42 What is still there is the primal drive to compete
0:10:44 and the hunger to feel something.
0:10:48 In a world increasingly run by old people,
0:10:51 it’s inspiring to watch young people pursue excellence
0:10:55 for the sake of something bigger than themselves.
0:10:58 One another and their countries.
0:11:03 I like Celine Dion and the Olympics.
0:11:08 Life is so rich.
0:11:10 (gentle music)
0:11:13 (gentle music)
0:11:15 (gentle music)
0:11:18 (gentle music)
As read by George Hahn.
Smaller
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices