Streaming success for Discovery in Beijing

Viewership of Discovery’s coverage of the ongoing Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics has already surpassed the 2018 games within one week.

Like with the 2020 Tokyo games, Discovery has used Beijing to increase engagement on discovery+ along with Eurosport digital services. The company has also highlighted strong overall linear viewership of the games across Europe. 

Discovery said that eight times more viewers are streaming Olympic content compared to the same period for Olympic Winter Games PyeongChang 2018. Total new paid subscribers to Discovery’s streaming services has already surpassed 2018 with a week of competition still to go.

The company added that nearly three-quarters of a billion streaming minutes have been consumed on Discovery’s subscription services so far. This is 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, with viewers on average watching 29% longer on television vs PyeongChang 2018. 

Jean-Briac Perrette, president and 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.”

 Andrew Georgiou, president of Sports, Discovery, said: “The audience and engagement growth we have experienced during the opening stage of the Games really demonstrates the additional value Discovery brings to its audiences and partners. Through our network of free-to-air, Eurosport, discovery+ and free digital and social platforms, we are driving more people to our Olympic content for longer.”