All eyes in Canada were on the City of Light as the Olympic Games Paris 2024 kicked off with a spectacular Opening Ceremony on the River Seine that drew in significant audiences on all CBC/Radio-Canada platforms. One in three Canadians (more than 13.3 million viewers) watched at least part of CBC/Radio-Canada’s coverage of the Opening Ceremony on CBC and Radio-Canada networks and broadcast partners TSN, Sportsnet and RDS, with an additional 1.9 million streams on CBC/Radio-Canada’s digital platforms, including CBC Gem, ICI TOU.TV, CBC/Radio-Canada’s Paris 2024 websites (cbc.ca/paris2024 and radio-canada.ca/paris2024), the CBC Paris 2024 app for iOS and Android devices, and the Radio-Canada JO Paris 2024 app. Audiences in Canada can stream the Opening Ceremony anytime on CBC Gem and ICI TOU.TV.
Canadians are also streaming more during Paris 2024, with total video hours streamed on CBC/Radio-Canada platforms tripling compared to the same day during Tokyo 2020, and 775,000 hours of content streamed.
“We’re delighted to have given Canadians the chance to experience the wonders of the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony, and to be swept up in the emotions felt from one side of the world to the other. In keeping with our mandate as a public broadcaster, these Olympic Games are an opportunity for us to continue to bring together audiences from across the country, and to share the stories, the dreams and the triumphs of our athletes.”
– Catherine Tait, CEO and President of CBC/Radio-Canada
Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony Audience Highlights
- CBC’s live afternoon broadcast of the Opening Ceremony from 1:30 p.m. to 5:38 p.m. ET and primetime encore from 7:30 p.m. to 11:38 p.m. ET were the top two most-watched programs in Canada on Friday, July 26 among both 2+ and 25-54 audiences.
- CBC’s live afternoon broadcast of the Opening Ceremony was the most-watched program in Canada on Friday with an average audience of 1.3 million viewers, an increase of 30 percent over the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony (1 million) and 36 percent over Beijing 2022 (943,000).
- Viewership peaked at 2.01 p.m. ET when 1.6 million viewers watched the introduction of Team Canada during the parade of athletes on the Seine.
- CBC’s encore primetime broadcast was the second most-watched program in Canada on Friday with an average audience of 1.2 million viewers (2+).
- Digital streams of the live Opening Ceremony on CBC Gem increased by nearly 50 percent compared to Beijing 2022 and more than 100 percent compared to the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony.
CBC Streaming Trends for Paris 2024 to date:
- The total number of hours spent by audiences across all CBC digital platforms so far is nearly double the daily average during Tokyo 2020 and an increase of nearly 10 percent compared to the daily average for Beijing 2022.
- Time spent on CBC Gem each day so far during Paris 2024 has also increased compared to the daily average during Tokyo 2020 (+272 percent) and Beijing 2022 (+27 percent).
- Audiences are embracing connected TVs for Paris 2024, with those devices accounting for 63 percent of hours watched on CBC Gem to date. Additionally, connected TV viewing has increased by 120 percent compared to Beijing 2022 and 273 percent compared to Tokyo 2020, so far.
CBC’s Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony coverage was hosted by Paris Prime Live’s Scott Russell and CBC News Chief Correspondent Adrienne Arsenault as well as the CBC Toyota Olympic Games Primetime panel – Andi Petrillo, Waneek Horn-Miller, Perdita Felicien and Craig McMorris – who all came together to guide audiences through CBC’s coverage of the truly unique Opening Ceremony.
With 10,500 athletes representing 206 nations and 300,000 in-person spectators spanning a 6k parade route and more than 94 boats on the River Seine, this was the largest Opening Ceremony in Olympic history and the first to be held outside of a stadium. In another first, the Opening Ceremony broke with tradition by having the parade of athletes open the show, and featured the athletes on stage throughout the Ceremony. Those in attendance and watching from around the world were also treated to a star-studded event, as legendary French footballer Zinedine Zidane helping to kick off the ceremony by carrying the Olympic flame through the city and later returning to pass the torch to an all-star quartet of Olympians including Serena Williams, Rafael Nadal, Carl Lewis and Nadia Comaneci. Incredible performances took place all along the parade route by popular French and international artists, highlighted by popstar Lady Gaga singing “Mon Truc en Plumes” as the opening act, and an epic finale by Canada’s own Céline Dion, performing “Hymne à l’amour” on the Eiffel Tower.
CBC/Radio-Canada, Canada’s Olympic Network through 2032 and Paralympic network through 2026, is the exclusive Canadian broadcast and streaming home of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, continuing through Sunday, August 11. CBC’s comprehensive coverage of Paris 2024 features live broadcasts from every venue and includes every Canadian medal-winning moment, with 22 hours of live television coverage each day and totalling more than 3000 hours of live content available on CBC and partner networks TSN and Sportsnet, CBC Gem, CBC’s Paris 2024 website (cbc.ca/paris2024) and the CBC Paris 2024 app for Android and iOS devices. Audiences can also visit the website and app for full event schedules, results, athlete bios and features, daily updates and more, as well as exclusive coverage by CBC Sports including in-depth reports, highlights, digital series and on-demand replays of the biggest moments and events, ensuring audiences across Canada don’t miss a minute of the action.
TV Data Source: Numeris TV Meter, July 26, 2024, CBC Total, Ind2+/A25-54, AMA, AvgDlyRch, CumeRch, generated by Instar. Note: Data is based on unconfirmed, overnight audiences.
Digital Data Source: Adobe Analytics, 2024