Record Global Audiences Announced as Olympic Baton Passes to French Alps 2030

With the Olympic Flag officially handed over to the organisers of the next Winter Games and the baton passed from Milano Cortina 2026 to French Alps 2030, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has published broadcast and digital figures underlining the scale and impact of the Games.

Milano Cortina 2026 was delivered to audiences worldwide by 24 Media Rights-Holders (MRHs) and more than 80 broadcast sublicensees.

Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) produced over 6,500 hours of coverage, supported by more than 810 camera systems, including 32 cinematic cameras, 25 drones (15 First-Person View (FPV) and 10 traditional drones) and 17 real-time 360-degree replay systems.

Across the venues, 1,800 microphones captured the action, while more than 10,000 broadcast personnel were accredited (4,500+ OBS and 5,500+ MRHs).

Anne-Sophie Voumard, managing director of IOC Television and Marketing Services, says: The Olympic Games are stronger than ever, and we see that this passion and the fact that the Olympic Games have such a success are translating into great digital and broadcast audiences around the world. Our Media Rights-Holders are telling us these Games are exceeding their expectations.

In Italy, two out of three viewers watched Rai's coverage of the Games, a higher proportion than for Paris 2024, and Italians have watched more coverage of Milano Cortina 2026 than the four previous Winter Games combined, the IOC said.

Across Europe, European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Members consistently outperformed their typical market share.

France, host of the next Winter Games, recorded more than 50 million viewers for coverage on France T l visions - 10 million more than at the same stage of both Beijing 2022 and PyeongChang 2018, and a higher reach than Torino 2006.

A total of 43 million viewers watched at least one minute of coverage, the highest level recorded since 2006, with viewers consuming more than three hours on average since the start of the Games.

In the United States, Milano Cortina 2026 averaged 24.3 million viewers on NBCUniversal platforms up to 16 February, up 88 per cent compared to Beijing 2022 at the same point, with coverage topping 20 million viewers for each of the first 11 days.

By Thursday 19 February, the Games had averaged 24.1 million viewers across NBC, Peacock, NBCUniversal Digital Platforms and Versant's CNBC and USA Network - the most-watched Winter Games at this stage since 2014 and up 93 per cent from Beijing 2022.

Streaming has driven significant growth. NBCUniversal recorded 11.2 billion minutes streamed, up 62 per cent compared to the total of all prior Winter Games combined. Warner Bros. Discovery reported triple-digit percentage growth in hours viewed compared to Beijing 2022, making this its most successful Winter Games ever on streaming platforms, and its strongest Winter Games performance in Europe.

In Japan, coverage on Japan Consortium's TV channels reached more than 92 million viewers, equivalent to over 80 per cent of the potential audience. In Brazil, ski jumping coverage became the most-watched Winter Games competition in Brazilian history, while streaming records for the Olympic Winter Games were also broken. In Australia and other non-traditional winter sports markets, audiences reached new highs, the IOC said.

Athletic endeavours

Across 19 days of competition, around 2,900 athletes competed in eight sports and 16 disciplines, with 740 medals awarded across 116 events, including eight new events. Thirteen Olympic records and one world record were broken. The IOC described Milano Cortina 2026 as the most gender-balanced Olympic Winter Games in history, with women accounting for 47 per cent of athletes and 50 women's events on the programme, compared with 46 at Beijing 2022.

Meanwhile, early figures from EBU Members highlighted strong national engagement during the initial stages of the Games.

In Italy, RAI recorded a peak audience of 4.9 million for alpine skiing as Sofia Goggia secured bronze in the women's downhill, compared with a peak of 712,000 for the same event during Beijing 2022.

Sweden's SVT achieved a total cross-platform reach of six million viewers by 10 February - around 60 per cent of the population - with three million tuning in for the mixed curling final.

In Switzerland, RTS, RSI and SRF recorded a combined average audience of over one million viewers for both the men's and women's downhill races and reached more than 3.4 million people during the first six days.

In the Netherlands, NPO 1 averaged 3.96 million viewers for Jutta Leerdam's gold medal performance in the women's 1000m speed skating, marking one of the highest audiences for any programme on Dutch television in more than three years.

Dutch skater Femke Kok takes on Brittany Bowe of the US in the 1000m in the Milano Speed Skating Stadium.Germany's ARD and ZDF delivered more than 200 hours of live coverage across their main linear channels, alongside around 700 hours each of livestream content, with ZDF's live broadcasts averaging 3.3 million viewers and achieving peaks of 6.6 million for luge and 6.5 million for the biathlon mixed relay.

In Austria, ORF recorded peak audiences of up to 1.27 million viewers for the women's downhill, with a 69 per cent market share.

Norway's NRK1 reached just under 5.4 million viewers, an increase of approximately 44 per cent compared with Beijing 2022, while Finland's Yle surpassed one million viewers across 25 broadcasts by Day 12, with cumulative television reach climbing to 3.78 million in a population of 5.6 million. In the UK, more than 20 million viewers tuned in to the BBC's TV coverage, with peak audiences of 3.6 million.

Digital delivery

Digital engagement has reached record levels. The Olympics Web and App platforms have engaged 110 million users,

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2026/02/24/record-global-audiences-announc...
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