3.4 million people tuned into the Olympic Games coverage on RTÉ, with 7.2 million streams on the RTÉ Player and over 90 million views of content online and on social media.
The standard measurement by which we judge the relative viewership of sporting and other events is in the average number that tunes into a programme rather than the peak, but this will be challenging given the fact that the highs of this coverage were embedded within longer programmes.
It may be that in the year-end statistics, the programmes could be cut into half-hour segments so they do not get lost in the bigger numbers that would tune in for specific match events like the All Ireland Championship Finals and the Guinness Six Nations.
THE MOST WATCHED PROGRAMMES OF 2023
On linear coverage, the top three events were Kellie Harrington’s Gold medal, which peaked at 1.4 million viewers; Rhasidat Adeleke’s 400 Metres Final with 926,000; and the Relay team’s final, which peaked at 910,000.
Daniel Wiffen’s Bronze followed these in the 1,500 metres with 790,000; Rhys McClenaghan’s Gold on the Pommel Horse with 610,000; and Mona McSharry’s bronze medal swim on Monday 29th July, which peaked at 621,000 viewers.
Fintan McCarthy and Paul O’Donovan’s back-to-back Olympic-winning performance in lightweight rowing took place outside of peak time on Friday, 2 August, and was seen by a peak audience of 429,000.
The value of a Games in our own time zone is evident through a comparison to 2021 when Kellie Harrington’s winning of her first Gold attracted 193,000
RTÉ VIEWING FIGURES FROM TOKYO 2021
The opening ceremony of the Olympics had an average audience of 443,000 viewers, and the closing ceremony had an average of 346,000 viewers. The homecoming, broadcast live on RTÉ One from O’Connell Street, welcomed the athletes back home with an average audience of over 200,000 and 43,000 streams to date on RTÉ Player.
Across the entire Games on RTÉ television, 3.4 million people in Ireland tuned in for at least 1 minute to watch coverage. This compares to 2.6 million in 2021
On social media, across RTÉ channels (RTÉ Sport, RTÉ2, RTÉ News and RTÉ Player, as well as the corporate channels), Olympics content garnered 90 million views with over 9.5 million engagements on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook and X. Again, the comparison to Tokyo was that there were 13.2 million views of video content for that Covid Games.
“Paris 2024 was a remarkable Olympic Games in every sense with truly unforgettable moments created by the largest ever Irish team,” said RTÉ Head of Sport, Declan McBennett.
“The level of engagement from the Irish public was unprecedented for the world’s greatest sporting event, and RTÉ was privileged to play a part in that across all platforms.”
“From the opening ceremony to the homecoming, our job in RTÉ was to ensure the public in Ireland could enjoy and experience all the excitement and spirit of Paris 2024, bringing every moment to our audiences, and in so doing offering a powerful national showcase for the incredible journey of Team Ireland’s 133 athletes – competing across a wider array of sports than ever before – on every platform, around the clock,” added RTÉ Director-General Kevin Bakhurst.
“The scale, quality and dynamism of the coverage is testament to the dedication of teams across RTÉ, and to the unique mission of public service media in guaranteeing free-to-air access for national sporting occasions such as this. I’d like to congratulate Team Ireland on its exceptional success – Team RTÉ is proud to have played its part in your remarkable Olympic Games.”
Sports fans were able to watch 14 hours per day of coverage across three daily TV programmes on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, featuring a stellar array of expertise on Olympic sports including athletics, swimming, boxing, rowing, gymnastics, badminton, and rugby sevens.
RTÉ delivered over 250 hours of live action from France across RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, with three live daily programmes, live coverage of the main events on RTÉ Radio 1, RTÉ 2FM and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta, extensive coverage via RTÉ News, as well as a brand new RTÉ Olympic Podcast series which was available each morning.
RTÉ News coverage saw significant audiences tune in and log on every day of the Olympic Games to see first hand the latest news and reaction from Team Ireland, along with the major international sport headlines. RTÉ News journalists and crews travelled all over Ireland capturing the excitement of local communities and supporters of our athletes, as the nation came together to celebrate and pay tribute across RTÉ News platforms to their efforts in representing the country.
RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app provided up-to-the-minute action from Paris 2024, including the results, athlete profiles, exclusive highlights and video interviews, analysis from RTÉ’s team of pundits, and all the breaking news from Paris.
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