During a tour of the International Broadcast Centre (IBC) in Paris, International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach viewed the extensive operations that take place behind the scenes and thanked those responsible for sharing the Olympic action with a global audience.

At a press conference ahead of the IBC visit, the IOC president said: “The Olympic Games create a magic that inspires the world. The broadcast and digital figures are going through the roof.”

“The audiences benefit from the incredible images going to the world from Olympic Broadcasting Services and our Media Rights-Holders. We are on track for more than half the world’s population to follow the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” Bach added in a statement issued by the IOC on Saturday.

OBS serves as the host broadcaster for each edition of the Olympic Games, providing the live television, radio and digital coverage of Olympic events and ceremonies to media rights holders (MRHs) around the world.

For Paris 2024, according to the IOC statement, OBS is producing over 11,000 hours of content — more than any previous Olympic Games — allowing the MRHs to share comprehensive coverage with viewers in their respective countries and territories.

The record output across both TV and digital platforms represents a 15.8 per cent increase on the amount of content produced for the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, and includes a number of innovations to take Olympic broadcasting to a new level of storytelling and redefine how viewers around the world experience the Games.

This includes more athlete-centric coverage and behind- the-scenes material, as well as cinematic lenses with a shallow depth of field to enhance the overall visual experience for the viewer.

In addition, new dynamic, data-driven graphics are being used to display athletes’ performances in minute detail, while a multitude of camera angles are helping to fully immerse fans in their favourite sports.

Yiannis Exarchos, CEO of OBS, said: “These are Games that truly inspire and excite us, urging OBS to push the boundaries, not only in our broadcasting, but also in the way we convey the stories of athletes, sports, the city and the host country.”

The immersive coverage being produced by OBS is already attracting record audiences on TV and digital platforms for MRHs around the world.

In the host nation, the Opening Ceremony broadcast by France Télévisions attracted a record 23.4 million viewers, representing an 83.3 percent audience share.

Warner Bros. Discovery, which is broadcasting the Games in Europe and on its streaming platforms Max and discovery+, revealed that its total unique streaming viewers for Paris 2024 had already exceeded those from the whole of Tokyo 2020 after just two days of coverage. Across both Max and discovery+, Paris 2024 has also already driven almost one billion streaming minutes, more than seven times higher than at the same point of Tokyo 2020 and already representing 75 per cent of the total minutes from those Games.

In the USA, NBC and Peacock registered the most-watched Opening Ceremony for an Olympic Games edition since London 2012, with 28.6 million viewers, while the total minutes consumed by the end of the opening weekend surpassed 1.1 billion across Telemundo, Universo and Peacock streaming and social media platforms, representing a 65 per cent increase compared to the same stage of Tokyo 2020.

(Photo courtesy IOC website)