Research from Ampere Analysis shows that the number of sports documentaries released by leading commissioners reached a new peak in the run-up to the Paris Olympic Games.

There were 103 new (first-run) sports documentaries and docuseries released between May and July 2024. In the current commissioning context, the number released in July represents 25 per cent of all new documentaries released globally during the month, a record share to date.

Key findings

• The last time these levels were reached was in the run-up to the 2022 Football World Cup with 109 documentaries in the three months to November 2022. However, this was in a time of higher overall commissioning volumes. Within the current commissioning context, the new sports documentaries released in July 2024 represent 25 per cent of all new documentaries released globally during the month, a record share to date
• This is a new high watermark for Documentary Sports content, which has grown its share of First-Run Documentary releases from 6 per cent in 2020 to 9 per cent in 2022 and 12 per cent so far in 2024. Primarily driven by SVoD services, the trend is increasingly being picked up by public broadcasters. European public broadcasters, led by France Télévisions and the BBC, released the highest volume of new sports documentaries from May to July. In comparison, the global streamers – which have become the market leaders in the sports documentary genre over the last few years – took a back seat over the last three months
• In addition to these documentaries, several other sports-related entertainment and reality programmes were also launched during the period. This pushed sports content to hit a record 17 per cent share of all new Unscripted commissions released in July
• The thematic focus of much of this content pointed to this shift in origin. The majority of these documentaries were reflective of public broadcasters’ remit with a focus on the history of the Olympics, portraits of local athletes, and analyses of national stakes in the Games. The Olympics featured less prominently in global streamers’ new sports documentary releases, which continue to prioritise topics likely to appeal to a broad international subscriber base. The focus was on sports such as football or access to high-profile sports personalities, including tennis player Roger Federer at Prime Video, and Formula 1 driver Checo Perez at Disney+.

Cyrine Amor, Senior Analyst at Ampere Analysis, commented: “Content producers had prepared in earnest for the spike in interest in sport of all kinds that the Olympics produces. This year there’s been a huge increase in the number of sports documentaries, docuseries, reality, and entertainment programming. Unusually, public broadcasters created more of this material than the global streamers. Sports fans have enjoyed a true summer of sport and documentary creators have turned July 24th into a record month for global releases.”

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Tags: Ampere Analysis, Documentary+, Olympics, sports