The next Summer and Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games will still be broadcast on CBC / Radio-Canada. The Crown Corporation announced on Wednesday that it had obtained exclusive rights to broadcast in the country until 2032 from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
CBC/Radio-Canada already owned the rights for the 2024 Summer Games in Paris. Added to its list now is the broadcast of the Winter Games in Milan and Cortina in 2026, the Summer Games in Los Angeles in 2028, the Winter Games in 2030 — the host of which has not yet been officially chosen — and finally the Summer Games in Brisbane in 2032.
“The Olympic Games represent the fulfillment of the dreams of many athletes. As Canada’s public broadcaster, we are proud to accompany them on their journey, from local competitions across the country to various national and world championships. It is an honor for us to be able to continue to tell these extraordinary stories to Canadian audiences for years to come,” said Catherine Tait, President and CEO of CBC / Radio-Canada, in a press release.
These broadcasting rights apply to all platforms, from television to digital media. The broadcaster undertakes to broadcast no less than 200 hours of coverage of the Summer Olympics and 100 hours of the Winter Olympics on free television channels.
Audience decline
Remember that last February, nearly 420,000 Quebec viewers watched the Beijing Winter Games on average every evening on ICI Télé. These were the worst audiences of the last Olympic meetings.
Preliminary data provided by the broadcaster showed that for the entire duration of the 2022 Games, ICI TÉLÉ’s market share was 17.9%, compared to 22.7% in 2018. was also seen on CBC, as the 2022 Olympics attracted 26.5 million unique listeners, compared to 27.8 million for the 2020 Games and 30.6 million for the 2018 Games.
Viewing of the online competitions, on the other hand, saw strong growth, with the number of “video connections” jumping 17% on Radio-Canada’s digital platforms compared to the previous Winter Games.