The Paris 2024 Olympic Games delivered record European audiences for Warner Bros. Discovery, easily beating demand for its coverage of the Tokyo games in 2020.
In most European markets the broadcaster, which owns Eurosport and streaming services discovery+ and Max, was the only outlet with rights to show the entire games.
TV coverage from its various brands spanned free-to-air, pay-tv and streaming, and achieved a cumulative reach of more than 215 million – 23% (40 million) more than Tokyo.
According to figures released by the broadcaster, its platforms saw four times as many unique streaming viewers compared to the last summer Olympics.
In addition, new streaming subscribers for Paris exceeded those for the entire Tokyo games after just four days of the competition (Saturday 27th July – Tuesday 30 July 2024) and over the entire period games period were 77% more than 2020.
The broadcaster is also hailing “significant” subscriber growth across all major European markets, especially in France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK.
Under a new deal with the IOC announced in January 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery will be the only place to present every moment of the Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026, Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, Olympic Winter Games French Alps 2030 and Olympic Games Brisbane 2032.
JB Perrette, CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games, Warner Bros. Discovery, said: “Paris 2024 has exceeded all expectations for fans and audiences, and for Max and Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming business.
“We’ve added millions of new paying subscribers, and engaged millions of viewers daily on streaming who have watched billions of minutes of content during the Games.
“Our streaming growth momentum is only gaining strength, and we’ve still got almost half the global addressable market to go.
“Congratulations and thank you to our great partners at the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Paris 2024 Organizing Committee for an epic Olympic Games.”
Andrew Georgiou, President and Managing Director, Warner Bros. Discovery U.K & Ireland and WBD Sports Europe, said: “Paris 2024 has again demonstrated the value of bringing premium sport and entertainment together to drive audience and engagement at scale.
“We’ve maximised this opportunity at these Games, delivering world-class production featuring outstanding on-screen experts and local country storytelling that has again proven to be a winning combination.
“Max has proven to be a game-changer for sports viewing with an enhanced product experience and new interactive features which encouraged more subscribers to come on platform and stay engaged for longer.”