The opening week of competition at Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022 has driven massive increases in engagement on discovery+ and Eurosport digital services, as well as strong overall linear viewership across Europe.
The first week of competition has delivered a strong start to Beijing 2022 across Discovery’s European television network and streaming products led by discovery+, the streaming Home of the Olympics.
Eight times more viewers are streaming Olympic content compared to the same period for Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018 with total new paid subscribers to Discovery’s streaming services already surpassing 2018 with a week of competition still to go.
Nearly three-quarters of a billion streaming minutes have been consumed on Discovery’s subscription services so far, more than 18 times higher than the same period of PyeongChang 2018. Average minutes consumed per viewer across discovery+ and Eurosport streaming services has more than doubled, as well as people on average watching 29% longer on television vs PyeongChang 2018. Our free Olympic news and short video clips on Eurosport.com have more than doubled their reach as well.
Eurosport’s average linear audiences remain strong and are in line with the last Olympic Winter Games, despite total TV usage being down more than 10 percent since 2018. Linear television audience shares in the Nordics, including Sweden and Norway where Discovery is both the pay-tv and free-to-air broadcaster, remain strong versus PyeongChang 2018 with continued stellar results reaching highs of 87% (Norway), 83% (Sweden) and 71% (Finland).
Jean-Briac Perrette, President & CEO, Discovery Streaming & International, said: “The Olympics are off to a strong start across all our platforms, with discovery+ at the forefront of this early success as the growth of our streaming service continues to significantly outperform.
“It is also reaffirming the power and value of integrating sports into our discovery+ entertainment service. As well as attracting a significant number of new discovery+ subscribers, sports broadens its appeal throughout the whole household and provides consumers an even greater, more retentive value proposition. Through just this first week, more than a third of new discovery+ Olympics subscribers have already consumed other entertainment content on the platform.”
