NBCUniversal is rolling out a “Live in Browse” feature on Peacock along with other advertising capabilities aimed at improving engagement and arming brands with more data.
The media giant made the announcement at CES, where it is joining Disney, Fox, Warner Bros. Discovery and other entertainment players leaning into technology. The new offerings are under NBCU’s One Platform umbrella and come as the media company gears up for its 100th anniversary in the fall of 2026.
“Live in Browse” highlights live events on the home page of Peacock, automatically playing in the top row when the app is opened. NBCU also said its “pause ad” format, introduced several years ago, will now be available during live events. Peacock early on after launching in 2020 put an emphasis on live sports and news. NBCU said pause ads have driven upticks of 43% in both site visits for brands as well as memorability compared with standard ads.
Another area getting a boost is creative ad performance. Generative AI, machine learning, and statistical models can help advertisers understand historical performance of ad creative within specific content and predict how creative will perform in several specific target areas. NBCU said it is now expanding those capabilities to live events, with models build for golf as well as an updated Super Bowl ad model for the February 2026 game.
The Paris Olympics, which were a significant win for NBCU and parent Comcast, point the way for the Milan Cortina Winter Games in 2026. NBCU’s Olympic ad model, which uses more than 30 billion data points derived from more than 1,600 ads spanning four editions of the Olympics generated 73% more message memorability for creative materials using the optimization tools, the company said.
The company is bundling together a group of premium events coming in 2025 and 2026 in its conversations with advertisers. Along with the Olympics and the Super Bowl, the list includes the return of the NBA to NBC and its debut on Peacock; a new edition of BravoCon; the Spanish-language World Cup on Telemundo in 2026; and the WNBA Finals and Big Ten Football Championship Game in fall 2026. The new tech enhancements will be integrated into sales efforts across the full slate.
“Our One Platform ecosystem has maximized our marketers’ reach and scale over the past five years to prove TV is a performance vehicle in a way no other product in the marketplace has,” said Mark Marshall, Chairman, Global Advertising & Partnerships at NBCU. “Now, as we head into our next century, we are kicking off a slate of unrivaled content combined with cutting-edge technology and exceptional end-to-end advertising solutions that will drive demand in new ways and provide long-term viability for our clients.”
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