Warner Bros. Discovery and BBC report strong streaming numbers for Paris Olympics

Warner Bros. Discovery and the BBC have released viewership figures for their coverage of the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The two broadcasters shared rights in the UK, with WBD holding broader European rights.

Warner Bros. Discovery

WBD reported a cumulative reach of 215 million viewers in Europe for its Olympic content, a 23% increase from Tokyo 2020. This figure includes viewership across Max, Discovery+, Eurosport TV channels along with free-to-air networks in Norway, Sweden and Finland.

Streaming data showed that 7 billion minutes were streamed during the Games, compared to Tokyo 2020. August 4 saw 600 million minutes streamed, setting a single-day record for WBD in Europe.

The company reported four times as many unique streaming viewers as Tokyo 2020. After four days of competition in Paris, new paid streaming subscriptions exceeded the entire Tokyo 2020 total. Overall, WBD saw 77% more new paid streaming subscribers than during Tokyo 2020.

Linear television audiences on WBD channels averaged double those of Tokyo 2020. Some events achieved audience shares over 80% on both free-to-air and pay-TV networks. In Poland, Eurosport 1 & 2 recorded their highest average audience during the Games on August 7, with a 9.7% share.

WBD’s Olympics-related social media posts generated 4.5 billion video views across platforms, an increase from Tokyo 2020.

JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games at WBD, stated the Paris Games “exceeded all expectations” for audiences and WBD’s streaming business.

BBC Sport

The BBC reported a total TV reach of 36.1 million viewers for the Paris Games, defined as those who watched for 15 minutes or more. This figure was slightly below the 36.4 million reported for Tokyo 2020.

The broadcaster’s coverage was streamed 218 million times during the event, more than double the 104 million streams for Tokyo 2020.

Viewership peaked at over 6 million on 14 separate days. Notable peaks included:

• 9.1 million for Keely Hodgkinson’s 800m win
• 8.5 million for Adam Peaty’s 100m breaststroke silver medal
• 8.4 million for the men’s 100m
• 7.9 million for the women’s 200m

BBC Sport recorded 730 million clip views on social media during the Games. The BBC Sport website attracted over 28 million unique users and 8.9 million signed-in accounts, with 62.2 million online requests for highlights clips.

As the junior rights holder in the UK, the BBC was limited to showing two live streams simultaneously, broadcasting around 250 hours on BBC1 and BBC2. WBD, through Eurosport, showed all events, totaling over 3,800 hours.

The Paris 2024 Olympics marked the final Games where the BBC licensed rights from Warner Bros. Discovery. For future Olympics, the BBC, as part of the European Broadcasting Union, will become a joint rights holder in Europe alongside WBD.