Olympics official channel gains 3.3 BILLION views since 2016 across all digital platforms

The International Olympic Committee’s (IOC) Olympic Channel is a platform where viewers can find more 25,000 pieces of video content, which represents all Olympic sports disciplines and 206 countries. The Olympic Channel was launched four years ago following the completion of the Rio 2016 Games and since then, the response to the channel has been really positive. On Tuesday, the Olympic Channel not only celebrated its fourth anniversary but claimed that it has now surpassed 3.3 billion views across all digital platforms.

Also Read: Could Tokyo Olympics 2021 Be In Doubt? Survey Shows Disgruntlement In Japanese Companies

Olympics official Channel gets record numbers 

According to the report published by InsideSport, there was a 65% increase in terms of views over the previous 12 months in monthly returning users. The report further states that on social media, the Olympic Channel community has grown to more than 10.4 million, with 74.9% of those engaging with content on social media under the age of 35.

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About Olympic Channel and the reason behind the success

The International Olympic Channel was the brainchild of IOC President Thomas Bach, who credited the fourth year of success to its coverage and promotion of the Lausanne 2020 Winter Youth Olympics, which led to the event being the most digitally consumed Winter Youth Games to date.

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According to the IOC media release, additional growth during the past year come from Boxing Qualification Events for Tokyo 2020 and digital engagement campaigns for the IOC during the COVID-19 pandemic, which highlighted athletes and home workouts across social media, localised content in Japan and India, award-winning original programming and coverage of key events in support of the Tokyo Olympics 2020.

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The release further states that the Olympic Channel has established a new distribution outlet for its 95 federation partners and has streamed more than 5,400 live events, adding to organisers’ media distribution rights and ensuring global coverage of their events. Partners include International Sports Federations (IFs), National Olympic Committees (NOCs), IOC-Recognised Federations and organisations as well as multi-sport event organisers.

Tokyo Olympics 2021: Why was the Olympics postponed?

While the sporting world was brought to a standstill by COVID-19, the Olympic postponed news was a major setback for the IOC as COVID-19 cases continue to grow across the world. Following the COVID-19 pandemic, the Olympics was pushed back to July 23, 2021. Before an official confirmation, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe had said on March 24 that after his talks with the International Olympics Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach on March 24, they have agreed that postponing the Olympics by one year was a better option.

Will the Olympics postponed yet again?

Recently, Japanese news agency Kyodo reported that in the online survey done by Tokyo Shoko Research, which covered 12,857 companies, 27.8% want the Tokyo Olympics 2021 to be cancelled altogether while 25.8% want the Olympics postponed again. The report further states that Xinhua has claimed that a combined 53.6% of the responding firms are against holding the Tokyo Olympics 2021 from July 23 to August 8, 2021.

The report further states that the survey, which was conducted between July 28 and August 11, shows that 46.2% want the Tokyo Olympics 2021 to go ahead in some way while 22.5 % are in favour of holding the Tokyo Olympics 2021 as planned. Another 18.4% want Tokyo Olympics 2021 to be held but with fewer spectators, while 5.3% want the Olympic Games to be held without any spectators.

In India, besides the Olympic Channel, the broadcast rights for the Games and all programming-related content are with the Sony Pictures Sports Network and it will also telecast the Tokyo Olympics 2021 should it take place.

Image Credit: Olympic Channel / Twitter