From Paris to Milano Cortina: The International Paralympic Committee on the movement’s French triumph and looking ahead to Italian success

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Para Powerlifting – Women’s up to 41kg – Cristina Poblador Granados, Colombia

Paris 2024 marked the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) most successful Paralympics to date, and the momentum of that Games is fuelling enthusiasm and inspiration at broadcasters around the world for the coming Winter Paralympics, LA28, and even Brisbane32.

New figures on the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games from Nielsen Sports shows that with more platforms and countries screening the event than ever before – a record 225 media rights holders, web streamers, digital, social and audio platforms – viewers consumed 763.3 million hours of dedicated live coverage, 83% more than the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games.

This consumption stems from 12,941 hours of coverage that was broadcast from the Games by media rights holders and global media outlets, 10,428 hours of which covered live sport, and the IPC’s John Lisko, managing director for global media rights is thrilled with the coverage. The overall number of hours broadcast from Paris 2024 is 48% more than the 8,700 hours shown from Tokyo 2020 and 154% more than the 5,100 hours broadcast from Rio 2016.

The overall live audience for the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games grew by 40% from Tokyo 2020 and by 117% compared to Rio 2016.

Speaking to SVG Europe about the Nielsen research, one particular aspect that Lisko finds very encouraging is the growing interest in the Paralympics from fans.

He says: “If you look at groups of fans, if you consider high, medium, and low, the people that are less interested or have no interest in the Games, when they were exposed to coverage of Paris, their enthusiasm and their interest increased significantly. So we’re confident that the passionate fans are going to continue to come back, but that when we have the people on the 180 degree side of the spectrum , when they’re exposed [to the Paralympics] whether it’s with television or streaming or audio or social media, it’s changing the way that they think about the Games.

“I think that’s where we’re going to continue to grow visibility for the Games, grow the coverage, and grow the movement in the long term, which is terrifically encouraging,” continues Lisko. “And we’re excited about that.”

This is important for the movement behind the Paralympic Games, which is about so much more than a sporting event, states Lisko. “It’s about the sport and it’s also about the movement and the impact is truly significant that we see around the world.

“The more we can get the stories out there and inspire people to want to be part of the Games and the movement only helps all of us,” he continues. “The athletes, just like all athletes, have worked very passionately to get to these moments in their lives, and the competition is as exciting as any competition that you’re going to watch. And if you don’t believe me, just ask; the Parisians showed up in droves! They filled those stadiums and those arenas, which was outstanding, and they were rowdy, and they were passionate, which we loved.”

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Para Powerlifting – Women’s up to 61kg – Onyinyechi Mark, Nigeria

Factors for success

Lisko comments on what he thinks were the contributing factors of success for Paris 2024: “I think it was a combination of many different things that brought tremendous success. The rights holders and the broadcasters were absolutely phenomenal; they went above and beyond in so many different ways.

“The streaming platforms have matured since the last summer games in Tokyo, and I think the broadcasters learned how to truly use them in the best way possible, and consumers figured out how to navigate them versus a linear platform. We were able to exploit these multi-platforms, not to mention the power of social media and their channels. Rights holders literally used all of the platforms that were available to them and maximised it from live coverage to updates and highlights, so the coverage was just absolutely phenomenal; all the major regions of the world were covered.

“So you have a broadcasters stepping up, plus OBS and the organising committee were absolutely fabulous because we also were able to step up versus Tokyo and had all 22 sports live,” he says.

“That was phenomenal,” he continues on the number of Paralympics sports that were available for viewers at home to watch. “Tokyo was 19, Paris, all 22. That was the first time ever in the competition.”

Speaking about the organising committee and OBS, Lisko says, “between the innovative approach to broadcasting to make sure that we got as much coverage as possible, as many sessions, as many days, and I think the actual competitions and the athletes were stellar – we couldn’t have asked for better between – the product that they gave us was phenomenal”.

He adds that Paris itself created a stunning background for the Games as well: “If we go back to the organising committee, and the country of France, the city of Paris, I don’t think it could have been a better backdrop. The commitment to the Games and the passion of the fans was outstanding. They showed up, they were enthusiastic, they filled stadiums and arenas. It was perfect in as many ways as we could have imagined.”

Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, Para Powerlifting – Women’s up to 61kg – Rukhshona Uktamova, Uzbekistan

Increased commitment

Lisko says the broadcasters have increased in their commitment to the Paralympic Games over time, and Paris 2024 was no exception. He explains: “The other thing that happened was some of our longer standing media rights holders and broadcasters continued to invest in the talent, the presenters that are covering the Games from their studios and from the competitions, and they’ve really advanced the inclusiveness within their organisations for the people on camera and behind the camera with disability.

“I point to the two most obvious, with Channel 4 in the UK and NHK in Japan, who were absolutely phenomenal,” notes Lisko on standout broadcasters for the Games. “Channel 4 and their production partner Whisper even built the world’s first-ever fully accessible production facility that they used for the Games, which is outstanding, not to mention the on air talent and NHK from Japan; they had remarkable coverage that they did for some of our vision impaired coverage, where they had two vision impaired presenters who are former Paralympians in Tokyo doing live coverage in Tokyo of goalball and blind football; based on a sound plan, they were able to do the coverage.

“There was some really remarkable efforts to bring [the coverage] down to the people, and help them understand just the enormity of the movement, which was fantastic. There were other broadcasters around the world [that pushed their Paralympic coverage for Paris 2024] but those two continue to make significant advances and challenge themselves, and I think that is terrific.”

Lisko states that the groundbreaking leads of Channel 4 and NHK are inspiring other broadcasters, who have asked the IPC to introduce them so they can talk and learn. He adds: “We see it out of different parts of the world; we saw it from Australia with Nine who was a brand new broadcaster [for the Paralympics]. We routinely see it out of Canada with CBC. We see it in markets across Europe, so it’s absolutely fantastic.”

Milano Cortina excitement

Looking ahead to Milano Cortina, the IPC is now in the process of finalising contracts with rights holders. Lisko comments: “We certainly intend to carry the momentum from Paris into Milano Cortina.

However, he adds that while there are far fewer sports set to hit screens for the Winter Paralympics with six on the programme versus the Paris 22-strong programme, “the excitement, the momentum, the energy from the rights holders, is very obvious”.

He adds that broadcasters were knocking on the IPC’s door for Milano Cortina rights before the body was ready to sell. “They stepped up; they were ready before we were ready to talk about Milano Corino, which is fantastic, and which is always a good position to be in. All parts of the world came forward in late September and October and said, “we’re ready to have conversations when you are”. I mean, that was phenomenal, and we want more of that.”

Lisko adds: “Where we are right now is we’re working very closely with the organising committee and with the rights holders to complete agreements, and we have some fantastic agreements from some returning rights holders, and some new ones. So we’re super excited about that. We are really optimistic that this is going to be fantastic for the Winter Games, and so far what we’re seeing is encouraging.”

Lisko adds: “If there’s anybody who’s a broadcaster who’s reading this from around the world and has interest in the Paralympic Games, please don’t hesitate to contact me.”

LA28 and beyond

The future for the Paralympic Summer and Winter Games is looking golden, says Lisko. He comments: “The really great thing is when everybody came after Paris with enthusiasm, they came with enthusiasm also for not just Milano Cortina, but for future games.

“At this point in time, we are only selling the Milano Cortina Games. However, we are really optimistic that that enthusiasm is also going to continue into LA, because we have rights holders who are indicating their interest, they’re enthusiastic about what LA Games could be, and some are even looking to Brisbane and realise what the future brings,” Lisko enthuses. “They look at it from the commitment that they can make as a broadcaster, with the ability to sign longer term sponsors. So it’s just a whole ecosystem of opportunity that we’re working through at this point,” he concludes.