As the 2024 Paris Olympics begin this weekend, the cloud left by the 2020 Tokyo Games’ competition still looms large. Headlines announcing the death of the Olympics have become a quadruple tradition, with critics citing overspending and corruption as factors with a low profile to be viewed as the nail in the Olympic coffin.
But are the Games really based on life support, or are we simply measuring their fitness by outdated metrics?
Let’s go back to 2021. The pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics saw live television and internet viewership drop to 3.05 billion people worldwide, a 5% drop from Rio 2016 and a 15% drop from London 2012. Not good. But while those numbers don’t lie, they can certainly be misleading. And one more context paints a picture not of extinction, but of evolution.
While traditional TV viewing has declined, digital engagement has increased. Tokyo Olympics highlights and digital clips have garnered 28 billion internet views. In total, that’s more than double Rio’s 11.6 billion and the world over London’s 1.9 billion.
This seismic shift in consumption habits is not unique to the Olympics. It shows the broadest trends in all media and sports entertainment.
Today’s sports fans, especially young people, prefer on-demand viewing to select television and social media highlights to hours of live streaming. These mobile interactions are shaping not only how fans consume sports, but how they engage with it.
Cooking for online eyeballs
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has recognized this change. They recently launched a program called “Sport. And More Than Sports.” the brand’s platform, which focuses on the stories behind the games, is a clear attempt to target a younger audience at the 2024 Olympics. Collaborations like Team USA and NBC’s Roblox partnership and the brands’ heavy investment in social media activations further that narrative.
But the IOC’s strategy goes beyond sales. The very fabric of the Olympics is being woven to appeal to the new generation. Of the 329 events in 32 sports in Paris, several starting or returning after the first game in Tokyo are clearly skewed towards younger audiences. Skateboarding, surfing, and even breakdancing are now Olympic events, reflecting the realization that the Games must evolve to remain relevant. The hand of the IOC is also shown with its recent announcement that it will host the first Olympic Esports Games in Saudi Arabia in 2025.
Despite disagreements over viewership, the 2024 Olympics remain a lucrative proposition for advertisers. NBCUniversal has already set a new record for ad revenue for Paris 2024, receiving commitments of $1.2 billion, more than $350 million from new advertisers. This influx of new ad dollars suggests that brands still see value in the Olympic platform, even as it evolves.
New TV strategy
It’s also a reminder that, while viewer engagement is changing, TV is still the richest vein in the sports gold mine. More than 60% of the IOC’s revenue comes from broadcast rights, and the organization is probably paying close attention to what’s going on with the NFL. That league seems focused on managing every prime time window and being on as many streaming platforms as possible.
To watch every regular season NFL game, you need access to NBC, CBS, Fox, ABC, Sunday Ticket, NFL Network, ESPN, ESPN+, Peacock, Amazon Prime, and Netflix. It’s a pain for die-hard fans, but a huge asset to the league. Each network is on track to spend between $1 billion (Amazon) and $2.7 billion (Disney/ESPN) annually and Netflix is expected to pay $150 million for each Christmas Day show on its calendar. In total, the 11-year deal is expected to bring in $110 billion in revenue for the NFL.
It’s a perfect example of a highly fragmented landscape, as different providers own the rights to certain game spaces. But the NFL has shown that, with the right product, leagues can take advantage of this opportunity. As we look towards Paris and beyond, it is clear that the way we measure Olympic success needs to evolve. The raw numbers from Tokyo—3.05 billion live viewers with 28 billion digital views—tell a story not of decline, but of change. We are seeing a shift from underutilized to active engagement and from appointment viewing to on-demand engagement. So to declare that Games is dying based on conventional TV ratings alone is missing the full picture.
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