The BBC has revealed fewer people tuned in to watch the 2024 Paris Olympics on BBC TV than the delayed 2020 Tokyo Games. The fresh figures come after many sporting fans complained about the cooperation only being allowed to show two live events at any one time.
In 2015, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) signed an exclusive £920million deal with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD). The US-pay TV company won the pan-European rights to air the Summer and Winter Olympics, thus forcing the BBC to dramatically reduce its coverage.
However, a UK law that aims to ensure major sporting events are widely available to stream allowed the public service broadcaster to strike a deal with WBD ahead of the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. Since then, the BBC has broadcasted events via a single network TV channel and a second broadcast stream.
The Paris 2024 Olympics was no different—with a new report claiming 36.1 million viewers watched at least 15 minutes of the 250 hours worth of Summer Games coverage on BBC TV. This is around 300,000 less than those who tuned into TV coverage of the 2020 event in Japan, as per BBC Sport.
Moreover, final figures reveal 12.2 million people signed in to their accounts to watch the Paris Olympics across the full 19 days of the competition. 9.1 million viewers also tuned into BBC One and iPlayer to watch Keely Hodgkinson win gold in the women’s 800m final.
Other TV highlights include the 7.3 million sports fans who watched Katarina Johnson-Thompson win silver in the heptathlon.
8.5 million viewers also switched in to watch Adam Peaty come second to Nicolo Martinenghi in the men’s 100m breaststroke final.
BBC TV also had a peak audience of over six million watchers on 14 separate days and BBC Sport saw the games being streamed 218 million times online.
"It is not an easy job, but these figures across digital, linear, online and audio demonstrates that BBC Sport's unique multi-platform offer is capable of uniting the nation with the very best of British storytelling,” said Alex Kay-Jelski, director of BBC Sport.
He added that the broadcaster had been there to “champion the athletes” and “take the audience on a journey across multiple sporting disciplines".
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BBC will continue to stream the Olympics on a single network TV channel and a second broadcast stream up until and including the 2032 Summer Games in Brisbane.
Later this month, the broadcaster will air highlights and select coverage of the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games.
Instead, sports fans can watch more than 1,300 hours of live coverage on Channel 4 and Channel 4 Sport’s YouTube channel.
The Paralympics will take place between 28 August and 8 September.
