Paris (AFP)

The Tokyo Olympics attracted more than 375 million viewers in Europe, according to a statement released Thursday by the American broadcaster Discovery, which holds exclusive audiovisual rights in Europe for the Olympic Games until 2024.

In detail, more than 175 million people watched the competition on Discovery and Eurosport - on television and on their digital platforms - and nearly another 200 million "attended the event through partner broadcasters with whom Discovery has entered into sublicence agreements ".

This audience represents "an increase of more than 10% compared to the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang 2018", underlines the American group, owner of the Eurosport channel.

In 2015, he obtained "exclusive rights" to broadcast four editions of the Olympic Games (summer and winter, 2018-2024) from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

This agreement concerned 50 countries in Europe, except France and the United Kingdom.

In France, Discovery entered into an agreement in 2019 with the public broadcasting group France Télévisions for the unencrypted broadcasting of the Games until 2024. At the European level, the American group has also concluded around forty other partnerships with broadcasters. .

Despite an unfavorable time difference, "significant linear television audience shares were recorded in the Nordic markets where Discovery offers free-to-air coverage" reaching "more than 80% in Norway and Sweden," said the Streamer.

The Eurosport pay-TV network saw its market share increase by 42% compared to the PyeongChang Games, he adds.

For 17 days, "more than 47 million unique visitors" followed the Olympic coverage of Eurosport.

In France, "9.3 million cumulative viewers" followed the Tokyo Games on Eurosport channels.

The Eurosport.fr platform recorded 12.2 million unique visitors during the Olympic competition.

For its part, France Télévisions, free-to-air broadcaster of the Tokyo Olympics, announced Monday an audience of 50 million viewers, or 87% of French people, who watched at least one minute of the event.

© 2021 AFP