Paris Olympics deal hands Discovery+ gold in UK TV streaming race

Discovery+ has become the UK’s fastest growing paid streaming service, with its parent company’s near-£1bn deal to wrest control of the rights for the Olympics from the BBC appearing to be paying off.

Six years ago Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) – which runs Discovery+ in the UK and the Max streaming service across Europe, alongside broadcast channels such as Eurosport – reached a €1.3bn (£1.1bn) pan-European deal with the International Olympic Committee that meant viewers would need to pay a TV or streaming subscription to watch all Olympic events for the first time.

Under UK regulations regarding “listed”, or protected, events, the Olympics must still receive significant live coverage by a free-to-air broadcaster.

In 2021, viewers of the Tokyo Olympics expressed frustration at the sub-licensing deal struck by the BBC with Discovery, which saw its previous blanket coverage on TV and 24 live streams cut down. For Paris 2024, the BBC is broadcasting just 250 hours of live TV and showing a maximum of two live events at one time.

However, fans have adapted to the new viewing landscape this year, with subscriber growth for Discovery+ outstripping all rival services in the second quarter ahead of Paris 2024 beginning.

Research company Kantar’s latest Entertainment on Demand report said the streaming service has emerged as the “standout performer” in the UK against rivals including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Apple TV+.

“We are very much hitting our straps,” said Andrew Georgiou, head of WBD’s European sports business.

“We have just renewed our Olympics partnership to Brisbane 2032, that’s an indication of how successful the first cycle has been. It has gone from strength to strength. We are happy with our investment in the Olympics and our ongoing partnership with the BBC.”

WBD is airing 350 hours of live TV for the Paris Games across Europe – and a total of 3,800 hours of coverage, up by 300 hours compared with Tokyo – across two Eurosport and seven pop-up TV channels, as well as more than 55 streaming feeds covering all events.

The viewer-friendly time zone of the Paris Olympics has also proved to be a major benefit.

Streaming audiences for Paris 2024 surpassed the whole of Tokyo 2020 by the end of day two, according to WBD.

The desire to access full coverage has seen Discovery+ and Max sign up more paid streaming customers during the first four days of Paris than the entire Games in Japan, although WBD declined to give the number of new subscribers.

By the fifth day of the Games, the European audience crossed 100m – almost a third higher than the same time period at Tokyo – across TV and streaming, according to WBD.

Georgiou said its Olympic TV coverage is attracting about double the audience levels of Tokyo, while minutes viewed via the Discovery+ app are quadruple the levels recorded at the Games in Japan.

However, Discovery+ has traditionally suffered from a high churn rate, with customers opting to end their subscriptions after they have finished viewing must-watch TV, as it lacks the depth of content of services such as Netflix.

“The service had a strong first quarter and has become the fastest growing, paid video-on-demand service in terms of subscriber growth,” said Andrew Skerratt, global insights director at Kantar. “Discovery+’s higher churn rates will present challenges moving forward, especially for households attracted by specific content.”

Georgiou said the UK has performed exceptionally well in terms of gaining new subscribers and their level of engagement, which bodes well for longer term retention.

He added that with the full Max streaming service due to finally launch in the UK in 2026, which will see a much broader range of TV and film content available to subscribers, churn levels are expected to drop further.

“That is the one metric we are most focussed on as a business,” he said. “Sport is great at bringing in new subscribers, keeping them is the key.”