The 2024 Paris Olympics: How Networks, Agents & Content Makers Want To Supercharge The Biggest Show On TV For A New Generation

For traditional TV networks, the summer Olympics in Paris feels at something of a crossroads.

As hoards of sports fans descend on the French capital and camera crews ready themselves for what will undoubtedly be their most intense three-week period of the year, industry observers and folks from the sports broadcasting world are quietly wondering whether the Olympics carries the same candle as years gone by. A just-dropped report from Ampere Analysis found that sponsorship revenue has rocketed at ten times the rate of media rights revenue since the last Games.

These musings come in a TV viewing market more saturated than ever. The jury remains out on the success of Peacock’s move into sports streaming when it comes to the games, while, in Europe, the Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC), which has effectively seen the U.S. giant sub-license the coverage to local broadcasters over the past decade, is about to elapse. Meanwhile, traditional networks are putting much energy into thinking how to attract those elusive younger viewers to the games in the social media age, while U.S. agents have swooped into the European sporting world and are striking deals here, there and everywhere with new platforms for their clients.

The games kick off on Friday and will be followed by three weeks of wall-to-wall coverage from across Paris. Iconic venues such as the Eiffel Tower Stadium, Château de Versailles and Grand Palais will host competitions, while, in what could prove a dazzling feat, the opening ceremony will take place with dozens of boats along the Seine. Rarely has information around an event been so closely guarded.

The first meetings between the IOC and local networks happened an incredible three years ago, almost immediately after the conclusion of Tokyo 2020, which was delayed by a year due to Covid. Ron Chakraborty, the man tasked with leading the editorial coverage for the BBC, says his team has been planning accordingly ever since.

“The challenge with every sport now is how to attract the next generation,” says Chakraborty, especially as it comes during the busiest summer of sport in years that has already featured the Euros soccer tournament, a U.S.-hosted cricket world cup and the gladiatorial drama of the French Open and Wimbledon.

“Over the years we have completely changed our content-gathering strategy [for young viewers],” he says, adding that the corporation has moved on from the era of “sitting down with athletes for three minutes and talking about their backgrounds.”

Instead, “powerful digital content” is being prepared for Instagram and TikTok that can be repeated in short bursts across multiple BBC TV shows. Vox-pop style videos featuring the likes of champion swimmer Adam Peaty and his girlfriend, Gordon Ramsay’s daughter Holly, and First Dates presenter Fred Sirieix and his daughter, Olympic diver Andrea Spendolini-Sirieix, are being prepped, in a bid to keep young audiences enticed.

Competition for young eyeballs is as healthy as it’s ever been and a string of big name personalities have been tying with social media platforms and brands in the space, with agents coming in for their slice of the pie, and looking to the future.

“In certain instances, an athlete’s success in a single Olympics can lead to opportunities that span their entire careers,” says Mark Ervin, Partner and Olympic Sports Group Head at WME.

“During the Paris Games, brands will be looking at athletes who they think are viable gold medal contenders at LA ’28. It’s earlier in the cycle than we’ve seen in the past, but it’s never been more important to get an early start on identifying individuals who are world-class talents that align with their brand’s pillars.”

Who are the breakouts?

To achieve the global fame of icons such as Usain Bolt and Michael Johnson, “athletes need to demonstrate they’re a once-in-a-generation talent or have a personality that allows them to become part of the cultural zeitgeist,” says Ervin. “People can tell who is authentic and unique — and they gravitate towards those personalities.”

As such, all feels in play when it comes to who the breakout stars will be at the Olympics. Several of those Deadline spoke with for this deep dive feel that a changing of the guard is approaching when it comes to the next generation of Olympic superstars. The heady days of Jamaican sprinter Bolt dabbing and dancing on the starting blocks are now well behind us, while few, if any, new Tokyo 2020 winners established themselves as household names and the likes of legendary Jamaican runner Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce are retiring after Paris.

That being said, American stars such as LeBron James and Steph Curry playing for the first time in the basketball is a huge draw, echoing Magic Johnson’s 1992 Olympic foray, and lest we forget gymnastics icon Simone Biles, who is still only 27. Just a week prior to the games, Netflix dropped its long-awaited tell-all documentary about Biles, the latest in a long line from the supercharged streaming sports doc genre. Swedish-American pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, meanwhile, who has handed much energy to that sport and shattered the world record multiple times, is also considered by many as standing at the gates of immortality.

WME Sports’ Olympics client list includes record-setting 16-year-old 400m sprinter Quincy Wilson, the youngest male to ever represent Team USA in track and field at the Games, who Ervin says “between his blazing speed and charming personality, has an excellent opportunity to put himself on the global radar,” and double gold-medallist 400m hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who the agent calls already “one of the faces of the Paris Games.”

From the home nation France, the BBC’s Chakraborty highlights ones to watch including swimmer Léon Marchand and rugby player Antoine Dupont. Young sports climber Oriane Bertone is also tipped for glory, having taken the sport by storm in recent years.

For agents, the Olympics provides a double opportunity. They can help make stars out of athletes — who are involved in more sports documentaries, podcasts and social media platforms than ever even before the platform of the Games is considered — and infinitely increase the profile of the news anchors, commentators, former sports stars, media personalities and actors on their books. For example, UTA struck a deal with NBC for SNL alumnus Leslie Jones and Brooklyn Nine-Nine and America’s Got Talent star Terry Crews to join the Olympics coverage team with pre-packaged interviews, with Jones set to be the ‘chief super fan commentator’ for the network. Due to the European timezone, pre-packaged skits will be an important facet of NBC’s coverage during the evenings.

It’s clear why agencies might see Jones or Crews as equally as important as the competing athletes during the Games. Data from UTA IQ, UTA’s research division, shows that a virtually equal share of U.S. consumers planning to watch the Olympics will do so via streaming platforms (67%) as broadcast (66%), with more than three-quarters (76%) saying they have more access to content away from the traditional TV screen compared with the last Summer Games in 2021. Four-fifths (80%) plan to engage with the sport on social media platforms, with YouTube (81%) top, followed by Instagram (75%), Facebook (68%), and TikTok (58%). UTA sees this as a significant opportunity to partner with creators who dominate those platforms. Olympics content from celebrities, influencers and digital creators will be consumed by three-quarters (75%) of viewers in the U.S., the research predicts.

Accordingly, UTA has been among the most active agencies ahead of the Games, with around 20 clients from its news and broadcasting, creators and talent teams working with the likes of Olympics broadcaster NBC and social media platform Snap to amplify the Games with younger people and reach new audiences.

Podcast megastar Alex Cooper will host a series of Watch With Alex Cooper shows on Peacock during live events such as women’s soccer, gymnastics and swimming from a studio at the International Broadcast Center in the Olympic Village. An interview with Biles will release on her Call Her Daddy podcast and she will be seen on NBC primetime and on The Today Show in the mornings. UTA sees this as a chance for her to super-serve her existing fanbase and be introduced to new ones through broadcast TV. The same applies to the likes of YouTube and Twitch streamers Kai Cenat and Duke Dennis, who will be capturing content for Snapchat alongside the likes Olympic gymnast Livvy Dunne, who has a social media following of more than 10 million, and Too Hot to Handle reality star Harry Jowsey.

“The trick now is whether those influencers can turn on their meter and get people to tune in,” says one senior U.S. agent. “It brings them into the mainstream conversation.”

Ryan Hayden, UTA’s Co-Head of News & Broadcasting and Co-Head of Sports Media, draws comparison with an example coming from former champion figure skaters-turned-commentators Tara Lipinski and Johnny Weir, who first unveiled their unique brand of punditry back at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. “Their color commentary in figure skating was not what we’d seen in any Games past,” he says. “That was probably the first shift in the Olympics where the story became about them.” The pair have gone on to become staples in the NBC commentary team, hosting the closing ceremonies over a number of recent Summer and Winter Games.

CAA, which officially exited the Olympics business back in 2020, will still be representing the likes of skateboarder Sky Brown, Great Britain’s youngest Olympic medal winner, and Tom Daley, the iconic UK diving champ and Eurosport commentator. A good number of the soccer players from across 11 countries will also be on the agency’s books. CAA’s recently launched UK-based sports division represents the likes of ITV presenter Laura Woods, while its brand consulting division will work with Salesforce and Chase during the events.

WME’s Ervin sums up the challenge for all talent at the Games. “In today’s world, an athlete’s social media presence is inextricably linked to their brand,” he says. “These are imperative channels to build digital bridges with fans around the world and make them attractive partners for brands.” 

Fara Leff, COO of UTA-owned Klutch Sports Group, says the Games represent a unique opportunity for sportsmen and women. “We want all of them to keep their eye on the prize but also we want them to be able to utilize the potential once in a life time opportunity of a global stage such as the Olympics,” she adds, pointing to coverage of athletes via national media of the likes of A’ja Wilson on the cover of Marie Claire.

With basketball star James, Antony Davis and former WNBA MVP Wilson on its books, Klutch can look forwards to major exposure for many of its clients, but Leff is keen to point to another emerging name. “Make sure to keep an eye out for our NIL [name, image and likeness] client from South Sudan, Khaman Maluach, who will be attending his freshman year at Duke following the Olympics and has a bright future ahead of him.”

Timezone boon

While the run-up to the Olympics has been interspersed with stories of public transport chaos and Parisians fleeing the capital to their holiday homes, the BBC’s Chakraborty says the games returning to a European timezone that also suits the American east coast is a massive boon, with the prior two having taken place in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

“You will get gymnastics, cycling and athletics in primetime on European TVs and that will be a wonderfully iconic fit with an incredible backdrop,” he adds. “This could be as big a celebration of sport as London 2012 with the added charm of Paris.”

One major U.S. agent says their NBC contacts are buzzing about the opportunity for a timezone that “people can consume in a real way, in real time.” With the sports events broadly wrapped as the U.S. goes into primetime, there will be “way more storytelling and outside the box content” on the network, they predict.

Those notions are echoed by European Broadcasting Union (EBU) Executive Director Glen Killane, the man in charge of brokering local deals with members across Europe. “Timezones can present a challenge, and Tokyo coupled with Covid being top of the charts made things difficult,” he considers.

The real challenge, Chakraborty adds, is the “unpredictability” of having so many sports reach their conclusions at similar times, meaning tough choices have to be made. “You have to be nimble enough to adjust to stories as and when they appear,” he says. “The Olympics is effectively 32 world championships happening at the same time in the same city and trying to work that out is tough.”

Proving at times helpful and at other times a hindrance, this challenge is informed by the current broadcasting deal with the IOC meaning that most local networks are only given two Olympic streams — one on main channel and one on VoD players like BBC iPlayer — which has led to staunch criticism from some quarters of the free-to-air coverage.

Rights switch-up

Given that the BBC was able to offer 24 streams for London 2012 and Rio 2016, Chakraborty says this is “naturally a change for audiences” but stresses that “around 90% were watching on just two streams anyway” in the before era, with exceptions for longer-lasting sports such as marathon running and road cycling. “We have to prioritize sports where there is jeopardy to capture those huge moments,” he adds. “If you want to see certain sports in depth then we will not be able to match that offer.”

From the next Olympics onwards, this could change, in theory at least. The EBU struck a landmark deal with WBD and the IOC last year that will, after Paris, see the cessation of WBD sub-licensing the rights. This deal, estimated to be worth around $1.5B, guarantees the games will remain free-to-air across Europe, ensuring every EBU member gets more than 200 hours of coverage of the Olympics and 100 hours of the Winter Olympics across TV, streaming, radio, social media and websites, although there are still restrictions in place in certain territories while WBD continues to show the games in their entirety on the likes of Discovery+. We understand that IMG has been a long-term consultant to the IOC across its media rights division, and will have had a part in the recent changes. IMG declined to comment for this article.

For the EBU’s Killane, the deal moves the EBU on from a situation where “we were paying for a seat at the front of the plane and getting a seat the back.” “We were paying in what we would anyway but weren’t in control of our destiny,” he adds. “That can manifest itself in various different ways, ranging from things as mundane as sorting hotel accreditations to major production matters. This was part of our positioning in terms of winning back the rights.”

Accordingly, the EBU, which Killane says is the “single biggest investor in athletics globally” and will soon launch its own streaming platform, Eurovision Sport, will be using Paris 2024 as a “recce to see how things are done” before taking the full reins from 2026.

But the EBU’s takeover comes with the broadcast rights market in flux, per Ampere’s research. While sponsorship revenue has grown by a whopping 60% since Tokyo, the figure in the media rights space is just 6%, Ampere said, although the latter figure still dwarfs the former one at $3.3B. Ampere said the U.S., China, Japan and the big five European markets (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, UK) contribute to 81% of the combined media rights and sponsorship value, highlighting the IOC’s reliance on a small subset of countries.

Insiders at WBD stress that the behind-the-scenes changes due to the rights deal will result in very little alteration for the consumer, with European free-to-air broadcasters guaranteed coverage until well into the future. WBD declined to comment directly on the new deal, but Andrew Georgiou, European Sports President and Managing Director, has previously said the company is “not really in the sublicensing business,” and that it was “not our core business.” In essence, the EBU handling European free-to-air agreements allows WBD’s commercial teams to focus on other pressing business verticals.

One source describes the 2015 deal that gave the legacy Discovery company all rights to the Olympics as a “very ambitious” agreement that worked for the IOC, which liked the idea of a single point of contact for rights. We understand WBD’s Olympics content team sees the EBU deal as freeing them up to focus on creating content, as they has been doing since last year when they launched doc Paris: La Vie Sportive, tracing the 100 years since the French capital since the Olympics were last held there.

WBD will have the most content, and be putting out coverage across its Eurosport channels, Discovery+ and Max, which has been rolling out across Europe this year. Every minute of every sport — 3,800 hours, including all 329 medal ceremonies — will be available in 47 markets and 19 languages, and coverage will be directed from a Parisian rooftop studio that will be known as WBD house. In total, WBD will have 400 commentators working on its coverage, with presenting talent including Germany’s Boris Becker, Fabien Hambüchen and Fanny Rinne; the UK’s Laura Woods, Ugo Moyne, James Cracknell and Tom Daley; and Sweden’s Carolina Klüft.

“For us, it’s about the journey of the athletes,” says Scott Young, Group SVP Content, Production and Business Operations at WBD Sports Europe. “It’s their competition, their story, their victories and their losses that make our content so compelling. Helping the audience to understand the enormity of what’s happening is when we enlist 98 Olympians representing 132 medals to bring that story to life across our channels.”

For WBD, this is the first time it has reached an Olympics as a unified company, and that’s why fans will see more of the Looney Tunes and other famous entertainment faces than they might have otherwise expected. Characters from the iconic Warner brand will offer explainers on what performances will be needed to win in Looney Tunes: Sports Made Simple shorts. Elsewhere, Snapchat will be used in the UK and France for a free daily recap show, while a Eurosport-produced doc, 4 August – An Olympic Odyssey, launched on Eurosport, Max and Discovery+, in which will monumental moments from August 4 throughout Olympic history are analyzed.

“This is a new world for us in Olympic production,” says Young. “It is the first time WBD as this new company has delivered an Olympic Games, and that has given us extraordinary access across the entertainment genre. The megaphone of WBD is unrivalled, particularly compared with previous Games.” No word yet on whether Batman, Superman or Logan Roy might make a surprise appearance, but the hope is younger, more diverse audiences tune in, wherever they are.

“The modern-day sports broadcaster has to be everywhere,” says Young. “You can’t sit back on laurels and assume everyone will watch your linear channel when you want them to. You have to be everywhere and let different demographics and age groups consume content when they want.”

Everything kicks off with that opening ceremony along the Seine. Young, who is one of the few people who know what to expect from the blockbuster event, tells us: “The Olympics are far greater than a sporting event; it’s also cultural event as well that ensures that over 200 countries come together with athletes who have hopes and dreams to achieve. You’ll find somewhere near four billion people are going to watch the opening ceremony. That makes it a special event.”

He refutes suggestions that Parisians aren’t feeling quite as excited, saying: “The Olympic bug is coming. When they light that torch, even those who are unsure will be inspired to hang around and enjoy what’s to come. There’s nothing like an Olympic Games in your city.”

That’s exactly the confidence WBD will need to make the Paris Games a success and prove the Olympics can still champion that celebratory spirit for a whole new generation.