RECORD OLYMPICS STREAMING AND TV AUDIENCES FOR WARNER BROS. DISCOVERY AS MAX BOOSTS VIEWERSHIP AND ENGAGEMENT ACROSS EUROPE

Warner Bros. Discovery saw record viewership and engagement across all platforms – spanning free-to-air, pay-tv, streaming, web and social – during Olympic Games Paris 2024, which came to an end with the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 11 August 2024. 

Supercharged by the recent launch of Max in 25 European markets, Paris 2024 marks the first real ‘streaming Olympics’ in Europe, as more people streamed more Olympics content for longer than ever before. Among the highlights:

Total viewership 

• Cumulative reach of more than 215 million in Europe viewing Olympics content on Warner Bros. Discovery’s platforms – 23% more than Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 (+40 million).
• This includes Max and discovery+, as well as Eurosport TV channels and free-to-air networks in Norway (TVNorge), Sweden (Kanal 5) and Finland (Kutonen, TV5).* 

Streaming viewership

• More than 7 billion minutes streamed over the course of the Games – six times more than Tokyo 2020.
• A record-breaking day: Sunday 4th August saw a Warner Bros. Discovery record in Europe of 600 million minutes in a single day streamed by Max and discovery+ subscribers.The day featured the Men’s 100m final, Novak Djokovic vs. Carlos Alcaraz Men’s Tennis gold medal match, the final day of swimming events and the women’s road race in Cycling. 
• Four times as many unique streaming viewers on Warner Bros. Discovery platforms, including Max and discovery+, throughout the Games compared to the last summer Olympics. 

Streaming subscribers 

• New paid streaming subscribers exceeded those for the entire Tokyo 2020 after just four days of competition in Paris (Saturday 27th July - Tuesday 30 July 2024**).
• Record number of new paid streaming subscribers over the Games period; 77% more than Tokyo 2020.
• Saturday 27th July saw Warner Bros. Discovery’s highest number of new paid streaming subscribers ever in a single day in Europe (Max, discovery+ or previously HBO Max). 
• Significant subscriber growth across all major markets in Europe, particularly France, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the U.K.

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.”

Further highlights include: 

Free web, app and social 

• More than 5.2 billion video views of Warner Bros. Discovery Olympics posts on social.
  • Nearly ten times more than Tokyo 2020 and more than four times greater than Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 and Tokyo 2020 combined. 
  • TikTok and Instagram especially driving views.

Free-to-air and pay-TV

• Warner Bros. Discovery’s average linear television audiences for Paris 2024 were double Tokyo 2020, demonstrating the continued attraction of the Olympic Games in Europe across all platforms. 
• Impressive audience shares – more than 80% for a number of events - were seen across both Free-to-Air (Finland, Norway and Sweden) and Eurosport’s pay-tv network – including increasing share vs free-to-air partners in many territories. 
  • Monday 5 August saw a record-breaking TV audience on Kanal 5 in Sweden, as Swedish gold medallist, Armand Duplantis, won the men’s pole vault. An 82% TV audience share was amongst the highest ever share in Kanal 5’s history. 
  • In Poland, Eurosport 1 & 2, available via pay-tv, had their best day and highest average audience ever during the Games on Wednesday 7th August, attracting a 9.7% share at the group level. Eurosport 1 was the second most viewed channel in the country on the day***. At least nine out of the ten highest viewed days on Eurosport in Poland came during Paris 2024.

Celebrating its first Olympics as Warner Bros. Discovery, the Olympic Games Paris 2024 was shown across nearly 50 markets in 20 languages on Max, discovery+ and through Eurosport on linear television. Under a new agreement announced in January 2023, Warner Bros. Discovery will continue to be the only place to present every moment of the Games on its streaming and digital platforms and hold full pay-TV rights. This includes Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026, Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, Olympic Winter Games French Alps 2030 and Olympic Games Brisbane 2032. 

*Cumulative audience is the total reach of all Warner Bros. Discovery channels, streaming services and websites. Deduplicated reach will be measured once all data is consolidated after the Olympic Games. 

**Day 1 & 2 of the Olympic Games were held on Saturday 27th and Sunday 28th July 2024 but with sports events at the Games having commenced on Wednesday 24th July with the Opening Ceremony held on 26th July.

*** Linear TV audience are reported up to 11/08/2024 across the following territories: Denmark, France, Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, U.K., Finland. Final and fully deduplicated total audience numbers for the whole Olympics period will follow after the Games.