The Opening Ceremony and the first day of competition at Paris 2024 have delivered the first ratings returns for Nine’s Olympic investment.
Nine’s main takeaway after about half of the first day of competition was a Total TV reach of 10.477 million across Channel 9, 9Gem and 9Now. The second half of the Day 1 competition will be available in the TV ratings released on Monday.
The buzz for the Games never really starts until the Opening Ceremony offers up its razzle-dazzle and the first start buzzer sounds at the pool. Both have delivered for Nine immediately.
The Matildas were on the Olympic stage on the day before the opening, but the 3:30am kick-off didn’t help live viewing. Then the 0-3 scoreline as the team was blitzed by Germany didn’t encourage catch-up viewing of the mugging in Marseille.
Although the Opening Ceremony also kicked off in the middle of the night and was impacted by almost non-stop rain, the numbers were strong. Similarly, the audience responded as Australia set up Gold medal victories via swim heats and a very rainy women’s time trial.
See also:
• 2024 Paris Olympics: Everything to know about Nine’s hosts and commentators
• Olympics on TV: How paying for Paris 2024 on Stan will be better than watching free on Nine
In the new world of Total TV and reach plus national average and BVOD details, Nine has posted the following results:
Saturday 27 July (Australian time) TV ratings
The 9Network’s broadcast of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024, together with the coverage of Day 1 of competition (up until 2am AEST) secured a National Total TV Reach of 10.477 million across Channel 9, 9Gem, and 9Now.
Nine’s Opening Ceremony hosts: Todd Woodbridge, Ally Langdon, and Karl Stefanovic
Olympic Games Paris 2024 Day 1 Night Session (7pm-9pm) dominated its timeslot across Australia with Total People and all key demos. It achieved a National Total TV Reach of 4.583 million, a Total TV National Audience of 1.817 million, and a BVOD audience of 211,000. Viewers watching this session were treated to the men’s basketball, which saw the Boomers dominate Spain with a powerful win (92-80) in their first game.
The live broadcast of the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games Paris 2024 (3:30am-7:15am) secured a National Total TV Reach of 2.138 million. The spectacular, but rain-soaked, extravaganza saw show-stopping performances from Celine Dion and Lady Gaga.*
Olympic Games Paris 2024 Day 1 Night Session 2 (9pm-10:30pm) convincingly won its timeslot across Australia with Total People and all key demos. The broadcast, which featured the Kookaburras defeat Argentina 1-0 in the men’s hockey, secured a National Total TV Reach of 4.007 million, a Total TV National Audience of 1.376 million and a BVOD audience of 191,000.
The replay of the Opening Ceremony of Olympic Games Paris 2024 (1pm-6pm) was the highest-reaching program of the day. It secured a National Total TV Reach of 4.616 million, a Total TV National Audience of 1.092 million and a BVOD audience of 75,000.
Olympic Games Paris 2024 Day 1 Late (10:30pm-12am) dominated its timeslot across Australia with Total People and all key demos. It achieved a National Total TV Reach of 2.423 million, a Total TV National Audience of 827,000 and a BVOD audience of 118,000. Audiences in this slot saw Grace Brown win the women’s cycling individual time trial to give Australia its first gold medal of the Paris Olympics.
A total of 309 million minutes of content were streamed on 9Now, making it the BVOD platform’s most-watched day of all time.
(*Nine has noted an updated Total TV Average Audience figure for the live broadcast of the Opening Ceremony will be supplied Monday).
Visit Mediaweek daily during the Paris 2024 Olympics for TV ratings updates.