Media company Discovery Communications has hailed the performance of its first Olympics as a major rights-holder, stating the Pyeongchang 2018 winter Games delivered on its commitment to engage more people, on more screens than ever before across Europe, leaving it in a strong position for the 2020 summer Olympics in Tokyo.
In June 2015, Discovery acquired Olympic Games rights in 50 European territories in a four-Games deal with the International Olympic Committee, from 2018 to 2024. Pyeongchang 2018 represented the first Games under this deal and Discovery has now reported back on its findings from the debut.
For the first time, Pyeongchang 2018 saw Discovery use a new system to assess the reach of the Olympics across Europe, aggregating data across all platforms using a measurement methodology endorsed by the IOC.
The three metrics, which together capture Total Video, include the new ‘TV’, across free-to-air, pay-TV, online and social for the company’s own platforms and those of its partners. Discovery said that approximately 58 per cent of the population watched on free-to-air and pay-television in its top 10 markets across Europe, on its own channels, and those of its partner broadcasters, with a record breaking over 90 per cent television audience share in Sweden and Norway.
It added that a record breaking 76 million users accessed the Games online, on social and through the integrated Eurosport app, which included free content and sport streaming service, Eurosport Player.
“We are seeing some statistics that blow us away, both in terms of the total scale of viewership, but also in terms of reaching younger audiences,” Jean-Briac Perrette, chief executive of Discovery Networks International, told The Hollywood Reporter website.
“We have heard this sort of rumour that the Olympics as a franchise was aging and maybe losing some of its appeal. Based on the feedback and numbers we are seeing, including on Snapchat where users are younger, if anything it is as powerful as it ever has been.”
Perrette said that while digital consumption is on the rise, linear television viewing remains key for the Olympics. “The traditional platforms, despite everybody's desire to write their obituary, nonetheless remain dominant in the vast majority of engagement and viewership,” he said.
“Digital is clearly growing, but viewership continues to be predominantly on traditional television and very healthy on traditional television.”
Perrette said that while Discovery continues to feel positive over the commercial performance of the Olympics over its rights deal, he admits that Tokyo 2020 will provide a much stiffer challenge for the company. “We feel better now about being ahead of plan and cash flow positive over the (deal period),” he said.
“Tokyo will be a whole new scale. We rose to this first challenge. Tokyo is three times the volume of events and hours, so it's a whole new step change for us. We will do some post-mortems and analyse what worked and what didn't work and what we want to do better and go attack the preparations for Tokyo, which frankly will start over the next couple of months.”