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≡ AUDIENCE REPORT ≡
The International Olympic Committee trumpeted the success and reach of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games during the final day of the 146th IOC Session in Lausanne on Thursday, stating in a research report that “~2.6 billion people followed the Olympic Winter Games Milan Cortina 2026.”
No breakdown of this figure was provided, or how it was arrived at, other than to note that the research was carried out in 15 countries, primarily by Publicis Sport & Entertainment. There were 92 National Olympic Committees attending the Games. (A request for explanation was made to the IOC; this post will be updated with any new information in a reply.)
The IOC’s Beijing 2022 audience report specified that there were 2.01 billion unique viewers on linear television and digital channels of its rights-holders. Was Milan Cortina a 30% increase on this? The IOC’s presentation does not say.
The lack of a breakdown follows others. Repeated requests to NBC about the total number of Americans who saw the Winter Games have never been answered; NBC promotes a 223 million combined audience figure for “Legendary February” which includes 125 million for the NFL Super Bowl.
The data in the IOC report which was provided is interesting in how viewers in the 15 targeted territories for research (also not named) broke down between broadcast and cable and digital channels:
● 60% watched on both broadcast-cable and digital
● 23% watched on broadcast-cable only
● 17% watched on digital only
The digital-only figure is up from 11% from Beijing 2022, but the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic also has to be considered.
In terms of how the Games were watched, big screens still have the advantage as 90% of the hours seen were on broadcast-cable and only 10% on digital. Average hours watched per viewer were up to 6.9, vs. 6.1 for Beijing 2022 and – more importantly – 5.6 for PyeongChang 2018.
Polling in Italy indicated good support for the Games, at least in February when the event was held, with 84% saying the Games were “a success” and 74% saying that they expect the Games to leave “a positive legacy.”
The IOC noted a total attendance figure of 5.4 million, with 1.3 million tickets sold, 3.5 million estimated to see the torch relay and another 600,000 attending the “fan villages.”
Polling of athletes on their motivation for the Games was interesting as 92% saying competing in a major multi-sport event was important and 90% saying that representing their country was important. These findings are about the same as those for Beijing 2022.
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