Report: Rio Olympics Viewership Strong for Live TV & Online

BRUSSELS: While the Olympic Games in Rio delivered solid numbers for live TV viewership, most countries reached new online records with the broadcasts, according to egta data.

Of the nine countries that put together TV viewing data for the opening and closing ceremonies, and for high-performing Olympic moments, findings show that Rio was a much bigger online hit than the London Games. BBC Sport’s coverage reached 102 million unique users globally, with 68 million coming from the U.K. This represents the largest success ever for BBC Sport’s digital service. Some 150 million videos from France Télévisions were watched on its websites, apps and external platforms such as Facebook, YouTube and Instagram, six times more than the London Games. The Netherlands also set online records with a total audience of 6.5 million unique visitors on the online platforms of NPO, a growth of 27 percent compared to London.

Also, different countries tuned in to different moments depending on the involvement of their own competitors. For example, Andre de Grasse winning the silver medal for the 200 meter sprint athletics for Canada was watched by 7.2 million Canadians, and Germany playing Brazil in the football final attracted 8.3 million German fans.

Although live TV audiences for the opening and closing ceremonies were lower than for the London Olympics due to time differences, millions still watched at all hours of the day. In Australia, 2.3 million viewers tuned in for the opening ceremony, a 74 percent share, and 889,000 for the closing (53 percent). In Canada, there were 3.9 million for the opening (38 percent) and 4.1 million for the closing (39 percent). In the U.K., the opening ceremony drew 2.5 million viewers (52 percent) and the closing ceremony 1.2 million (33 percent).

Katty Roberfroid, the director general of egta, commented on behalf of PEPPTV (an informal grouping of broadcasters’ trade bodies and sales houses): “The Olympic Games in Rio once again proved the power of live TV and its capacity to bring people together. Broadcasters throughout Europe have reasons to be proud of the audience figures achieved during the Games in Brazil. The Games evidently prove that live events—and especially sport events—are the biggest asset for TV broadcasters. This is what makes TV so relevant, so appealing to massive audiences and so social. There is no alternative medium that reaches and impacts such a big crowd as TV does.”