NBCUniversal’s Peacock will let you watch four live streams of the 2024 Paris Olympics simultaneously

Today, during NBCUniversal’s annual technology conference, One24, the company revealed a slew of features coming to its streaming service Peacock ahead of the 2024 Paris Olympics in July.

The most notable feature to be launched on Peacock is multi-viewing, which allows subscribers to watch up to four simultaneous matches at once. Along with picture-in-picture mode, many sports fans agree that multi-view has been one of the greatest advances in sports streaming technology in years, as it provides a more convenient way to follow multiple games at once rather than constantly switching streams.

The company also announced a new interactive “Live Actions” button to let fans choose which events they want to follow, a new way to search for specific athletes, and other features designed to help subscribers navigate through more than 5,000 hours of live coverage next summer. the Olympics.

Some subscribers have complained about the way Peacock has broadcast the Olympics in the past, so it’s important that the streamer delivers a decent viewing experience this year. For example, during the 2022 Winter Olympics, Peacock made the questionable choice of revealing some of the winners in the highlights list. This will be the first time the service has done a full live stream of all Summer Olympic events, so we bet Peacock is feeling the pressure to get it right.

Peacock reported 31 million subscribers as of Q4 2023.

Two multi-display options

Although both YouTube TV and Apple offer multi-view features, Peacock told TechCrunch during a press conference on Tuesday that it is the first standalone streaming service to offer web support for multi-view. Google-owned YouTube TV rolled out the multi-view feature last year and it’s only available on smart TVs. In May 2023, Apple began offering multiple offerings on Apple TV 4K for select sports content, such as Major League Soccer and Major League Baseball.

Peacock is also hoping to stand out among its competitors by offering two multiview options: “Discovery Multiview,” which gives fans a four-screen overview of live events currently happening, and a more traditional multiview experience where viewers can choose the four matches they want. To Watch (This second option is only available for Olympic sports that have multiple simultaneous streams, such as soccer, wrestling, and track and field.) Both options are customizable, meaning viewers can move around the screens and seamlessly switch between audio feeds.

Since up to 40 Olympic events will be held simultaneously, the unique display helps viewers identify the four most important events. Additionally, the feature will display tags and descriptions for each match to let fans know which players have a first-time Olympian or defending champion or if there is a risk of elimination.

“With up to 40 events happening at the same time, we want to avoid users getting decision paralysis… [Peacock Discovery Multiview is] “The perfect choice for fans who want to sit back and let Peacock be their guide to the best Olympics,” Gilley adds.

Peacock’s multi-viewing feature is not only available on the web, but also on smart TVs, streaming devices, and tablets. However, the company explained to us that it is not rolling out the multi-view feature on mobile devices because the smaller screen size makes it difficult to navigate between events.

“Ultimately it comes down to screen size, and we’ve found that multi-display on mobile doesn’t provide the best viewing experience,” Peacock SVP of product John Jelley told TechCrunch. “For users who want to watch on the go, multi-viewing is available on tablets, and of course across all other platforms.”

YouTube TV Recently confirmed To 9to5Google they are launching support on iOS devices, but the feature will likely be less advanced compared to the TV version.

Peacock will begin testing multiple views during select events this spring.

Image credits: peacock

In addition to multi-viewing, the streaming service is adding “Live Actions,” which prompts fans to select a “Continue Watching” button if they want to continue watching live coverage or switch to full coverage. They can also add events to their My Stuff list to watch later.

The new “Search by Sports Star” feature allows viewers to narrow their search to include their favorite athletes. Previously, they could only search by sport, event, team and country.

Peacock is also expanding its “Catch Up with Key Plays” feature to include basketball, golf, and soccer. This feature allows fans to watch game highlights to watch quickly without having to exit the home screen. It was initially launched as a feature for English Premier League matches.

The company indicated that the multiple shows and live events will expand to other live sporting events after the Olympics.