Paris Olympics: Warner Bros. Discovery & BBC Champion Record Ratings In Europe

Warner Bros. Discovery and the BBC have championed record ratings at the Paris Olympics.

Having spent the day number crunching viewing over the past fortnight or so, the behemoths have spotlighted rocketing views to sporting events compared to the prior games three years ago.

WBD, which sub-licensed the European rights and also showed sport on Discovery+, Eurosport and Max, said that more than 7 billion minutes were streamed over the course of the games, a six-fold increase when compared with Tokyo. On one record-breaking day Sunday, 600 million minutes were streamed as swimming and cycling events took place while Novak Djokovic faced off with Carlos Alcaraz in tennis.

More than 215 million people in Europe watched the Olympics via its platforms overall, WBD said.

The games were also a driver to WBD’s paid-for streamers, with 77% more new subs added when compared with Tokyo, according to the U.S. major’s stats blast.

JB Perrette, WBD’s CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games, said Paris had “exceeded all expectations for fans and audiences.”

“Our streaming growth momentum is only gaining strength, and we’ve still got almost half the global addressable market to go,” he added, speaking as new streamer Max looks to firmly establish itself on the continent.

In the UK, the BBC said that Paris broke records by doubling the number of Olympic views – or ‘streams’ – online to 218 million. This came in spite of viewer frustration to varying degrees at the BBC having only two Olympic streams at any one time due to the nature of the WBD sub-licensing deal with the International Olympic Committee, which will now revert back to the European Broadcasting Union for the next two games.

While the jump in viewing was expected given the time difference with Tokyo compared to the French capital, the BBC was bullish about the hold the Olympics had over viewers over the past two-and-a-bit weeks.

Live viewing on TV sets totalled 36.1 million, or 59% of the UK population, it said. The focus on spotlighting medal-winners paid off, it added, pointing to 9.1 million viewers turning in for Keely Hodgkinson’s 800 metre gold, 8.5 million watching swimming star Adam Peaty’s silver and 8.4 million catching Noah Lyles’ 100 metre epic on the BBC.

BBC sport boss Alex Kay-Jelski, who started in the role just before the games, said: “With world-class on-air performances and production, BBC Sport has been there to champion the athletes and to take the audience on a journey across multiple sporting disciplines. It is not an easy job, but these figures across digital, linear, online and audio demonstrates that BBC Sport’s unique multiplatform offer is capable of uniting the nation with the very best of British storytelling.”

The comments came a few weeks after our deep dive published prior to the games, in which we wrote that the Olympics felt at something of a crossroads in a saturated TV viewing market that has struggled to captivate young people. Traditional networks like the BBC had been putting a great deal of energy into thinking how their coverage could keep the eyes of those elusive 16-34 year olds trained on the games.

Digital delight

According to TikTok, there was a near-2000% rise in TikTok posts about the games when compared with Tokyo, while 233,000 people created content using the Olympics hashtag. Viral moments included the antics of Turkey’s ‘shooter dad’ Yusuf Dikeç and controversies around the new sport of breaking. WBD said there were more than 4.5 billion video views of its posts on social, nearly 10 times up on Tokyo 2020 and four times greater than Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and Tokyo combined.

Our sources had also told us that it felt like a new generation of stars was required, one that was offered up to the public early doors in the form of French swimmer Léon Marchand, who won four golds and carried the torch at last night’s closing ceremony.

The BBC’s Kay-Jelski said “we have witnessed a host of new sport stars emerge on an international level.”

The games ended last night with a closing ceremony featuring Tom Cruise parachuting into the stadium and ceremonially taking the flag to LA, where the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Billie Eilish and Snoop Dogg were waiting for him.