The closing ceremony on Sunday 11 August brought the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to a close with a ceremony that was watched by an average of 2.3 million viewers on the five channels that broadcast it live (La 1, La 2, Teledeporte, Eurosport and Eurosport 2). It was the culmination of more than two weeks of sporting competitions that have turned television audiences upside down at one of the times of the year that traditionally have the lowest audiovisual consumption. In addition, this year they have served to revitalise La 1’s data and propel the public channel to the top.
According to a report by the consultancy Barlovento Comunicación based on data from the auditor Kantar Media, 67% of the Spanish population has watched the Paris Games on traditional television (both live and delayed) at some point since they began on 26 July until they closed on 11 August. These figures do not include the Max platforms, which broadcast the entire event this year (and which has not provided audience data), or RTVE Play, where some competitions could also be seen. According to data provided by RTVE, 4,773,000 people have watched the Games through RTVE Play, 10.1% of the population, according to data from Kantar Media Cross-Platform ViewTM.
The total number of viewers accumulated in these days on the traditional channels that have broadcast the Games has been 31.3 million. That is, 31.3 million viewers have seen at least one minute of the Olympic Games on La 1, La 2, Teledeporte, Eurosport or Eurosport 2. The data is somewhat better than that of Tokyo 2020, when the minimum number of viewers of an Olympic event in Spain was reached, with 30 million accumulated viewers and 66.3% coverage of the population. It must be taken into account that these were Games without an audience due to the pandemic and with a large time difference with respect to Spain. The greatest coverage since there are recorded data was obtained with the Sydney 2000 Games: then only La 1 and La 2 broadcast the competitions and reached 36 million viewers in total, which then meant 93.3% of the Spanish population.
Back to this year’s event, tennis and football have been the kings of Paris 2024 on Spanish television. The gold medal match between Djokovic and Alcaraz was the most watched broadcast in Spain of the Paris Games, with 3.5 million viewers on average on La 1. This match also achieved the golden minute of these Games, that is, the minute in which the most viewers were watching the same broadcast. It was at 16:54 and reached 4.5 million viewers. This was followed by the extra time of the football match in which the men’s teams of France and Spain were playing for Olympic gold, which was watched on La 1 by 3.4 million viewers. Regulation time, the 90 minutes of the match, was followed by 2.8 million viewers. The penalty shoot-out of the match between the women’s football teams of Spain and Colombia, in which it was decided that Spain would advance to the semi-final, also attracted a large audience (2.6 million viewers).
The Paris 2024 Games have been a great audience success for La 1. The broadcasts related to the Olympic event on TVE’s first channel achieved an average of 19.3% share in their live broadcast. This is much better than the share achieved by La 1 in Tokyo 2020, when that figure was 10.9%. It is also better than the result of Rio de Janeiro 2016 (12.2%) and London 2012 (16.5%). In Beijing 2008 and Athens 2004, the audience was higher, with a 24% and 22% share respectively.
The Barlovento Comunicación report also provides some interesting data, such as the fact that the Olympic Games audience is predominantly male (58% men versus 42% women) and over 45 years old: the 45 to 64 age group accounts for 41% of viewers and those over 64 account for 34%. Only 25% of the Games’ audience on traditional television was under 44 years old. For this last piece of data, it must be taken into account that the average age of the television viewer in Spain is 57 years old, an age that drops significantly among platform users, where the competition could also be followed this year.
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