Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) reports that the return of the Olympic Winter Games to Europe produced significant growth in viewership and engagement across its services across the region.  

Highlights across the seventeen days of competition (February 6th-22nd), as well as two days prior to the Opening Ceremony featuring select sports events, include:

Across streaming (HBO Max and discovery+): 

• The best streaming Olympic Winter Games ever on WBD services (vs Beijing 2022 and PyeongChang 2018).

o   Triple-digit percentage growth in total hours viewed (+103 per cent vs Beijing 2022) – including triple-digit growth in France, Germany, Italy (on HBO Max) and the UK (discovery+).
o   Streaming across HBO Max and discovery+ saw three times more viewers (234 per cent) vs Beijing 2022.
o   As reported, total subscribers streaming Milano-Cortina 2026 content exceeded those that viewed the entire Beijing 2022 Games after only 3 days
o   Social video views on Eurosport (Europe) and TNT Sports (UK & Ireland) accounts exceeded 4 billion – all pointing viewers to the relevant streaming service.

Innovative streaming features helped maximise engagement and boost viewership. Available within the ultimate Olympics viewing experience on HBO Max and discovery+, including:

• Presenting every event live – all 246 live sessions, peaking at 11 concurrent events, including 116 medal contests, 2,900 athletes competing across 19 days.
• 32 per cent of users utilising Olympics Multiview. For the first timea llowing streaming viewers to watch up to four Olympics events concurrently on a single screen with their choice of audio.
• Empowering users to navigate the concurrent live action through Gold Medal Alerts and Timeline Markers; offering Personalised Watch Lists that were utilised by the majority of users; allowing users to select from up to 21 commentary languages for their live coverage.

Andrew Georgiou, President & Managing Director, WBD Sports Europe, commented: “The success we witnessed in the opening days has translated into an outstanding Olympic Winter Games for Warner Bros Discovery with substantial streaming viewership and engagement growth in addition to highly robust linear audiences. Watching the Olympic Games on HBO Max and discovery+ clearly resonated with audiences in the UK and Europe with three times as many people choosing to stream the Games with us compared to Beijing 2022. Viewers being able to curate their own Olympics, selecting from all 116 live events and using innovative features such as our one-screen Multiview, drove significant increases in time spent by fans watching on our streaming services. This Olympics has set an incredibly strong foundation as we look to Los Angeles 2028 and the Olympic Winter Games returning to Europe again for French Alps 2030.”

Across linear (Eurosport in Europe; TNT Sports in the UK & Ireland): 

• Linear saw a +3 per cent increase in viewers vs Beijing 2022, marking a reverse of declines in total TV consumption over this period and driving the bulk of overall live viewing.
• More than 50 per cent linear growth in hours viewed overall vs Beijing 2022 (+51 per cent).

o        Eurosport channels vs Beijing 2022:

• France +47 per cent in hours viewed
• Germany +50 per cent hours viewed
• Poland +32 per cent hours viewed

o        TNT Sports channels (UK & Ireland only) vs Beijing 2022:

• UK & Ireland +60 per cent hours viewed

Other posts by :

1. Starlink success in Spain, but South Africa proves difficult
2. RocketLab doubts over Mynaric bid
3. IRIS2 free for government usage?
4. Bank: AST SpaceMobile will orbit 356 satellites by 2030
5. SpaceX launches 600th rocket
6. Starlink: 10m customers and counting
7. SES predicts end of ‘big’ Geo satellites
8. Amazon Leo gets approval for 4,504 extra satellites
9. SpaceX gets a portion of India

Categories: Articles, Consumer Behaviour, Content, Research

Tags: Eurosport, TNT Sports, WBD, winter olympics