By Jordan McDonald
The Australian broadcasting rights for the next Olympic Games are up for grabs.
So, should Australian media outlets spend up big to get a deal that is likely to include Paris 2024, Los Angeles 2028 and perhaps even Brisbane 2032?
The Tokyo experience would suggest that there is still plenty of life in broadcasting the Olympics.
And it’s not just about the traditional television ratings that were make-or-break for networks.
Yes, the Opening Ceremony and Rohan Browning’s 100m semi-final were huge for Channel Seven, serving up more than 3 million viewers each on the old ratings measure. That’s massive.
But, for broadcasters, viewership is definitely becoming less about television ratings and more about reach and offering.
And that’s where Tokyo was a success for Seven.
Although viewership continued to drop on traditional television measures globally, the Olympics is arguably reaching the most people ever thanks to digital and social platforms.
The offering on digital and social media platforms is reaching people where they already are throughout the day.
Future Olympics, and how accessible they are away from television, will be key to viewership success into the future.
The numbers behind the world’s broadcast of the Tokyo Olympics tells a fascinating story, let me break it down.
Viewership in most major markets around the world declined.
The United States suffered their smallest audience in 33 years with only 16.9 million television viewers for the opening ceremony.
Europe’s numbers were down too – France’s audience over the first three days of broadcast was down 17.4% compared to that same period of the Rio Olympics, and down 74% compared to the same period of the London Olympics.
The number of people who tuned in for opening ceremony in Germany was 73% lower than those who watched the Beijing Olympics opening ceremony.
And the same story was seen in Britain with only 36.4 million tuning in over the 16 days making the Tokyo Games the least watched Olympics since 2008.
The time zone was not friendly to some TV markets.
The US and European audiences would’ve loved to watch more of their athletes compete, but most would’ve been asleep during the events.
Those that did stay up in the US complained of too many ads, poor scheduling, and spoiling results instead of recapping events chronologically.
Viewer behaviour has changed too – people can view more of what they’re interested in thanks to social media and streaming apps, and they did.
NBC in the United States recorded 5.5 billion minutes of streaming was consumed by viewers across their digital platforms and social media.
In Australia, the Tokyo Olympics was the largest streaming event in history with 4.7 billion streaming minutes enjoyed by viewers on Seven Network’s 7plus app.
In Australia, viewership throughout the games jumped 67% when compared to the 2016 Rio Olympics with nearly 20 million Aussies tuning in at some stage.
The 7plus app did cop a fair roasting on social media because of various technical issues, but for the most part, viewers enjoyed the being able to watch specific sports uninterrupted.
The Olympics are proof that free-to-air broadcasters are still in love with premium sport.
Yes, streaming services are a huge threat but the combination of the anti-siphoning list and the public’s desire to watch sport live rather than on replay leave big-ticket sport as key product for broadcasters.
The Olympics is one of the few broadcast opportunities left that offers reliable value to networks.
If broadcasters can pair their TV programming with a high-quality streaming option that complements viewer’s consumption habits, the investment is very worthwhile.
It’s the same thinking that may drive the NRL’s all-important next TV deal.