Winter Youth Olympic Games achieve highest broadcast and digital results to date at Lausanne 2020
In the year that the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) celebrate their 10-year anniversary, record digital coverage and engagement for a winter edition of the YOG were announced today during the IOC Executive Board meeting in Lausanne during the final analysis of Lausanne 2020, just over one month after the Games concluded.
By the end of the third edition of a Winter YOG, coverage of the event across Lausanne2020.sport and Olympic platforms (the Olympic Channel and olympic.org) had attracted over three million unique users during the 13-day event, a 200 per cent increase on Lillehammer 2016. Content generated 66 million video views across the Olympic platforms and social media, approximately 25 times more views than the previous YOG edition, demonstrating the growth and fan-interest in the Winter event.
Digital tools were implemented as part of an overarching “Gamechangers” campaign to empower young people and provide fun and engaging ways for fans to interact with the Youth Olympic Games across Olympic platforms and social media, which attracted over 500,000 new followers and almost 90 million views of the digital stickers available on Instagram and Snapchat. Furthermore, to reach new audiences, a team of six influencers worked with athletes to create content around the sport and key issues such as climate change that was seen by over 2.5 million people.
Broadcast also saw a significant increase. From zero live coverage available at the first Winter YOG just two editions ago at Innsbruck 2012, these Winter YOG were aired in 191 territories by 73 Rights-Holding Broadcasters (RHBs), with close to 2,700 hours of linear TV coverage. Lausanne 2020 was watched by an estimated audience of more than 150 million people worldwide. For news outlets both linear and online, the IOCnewsroom.com service supplemented coverage, with 1,270 channels using athlete-focused content and broadcasting 3,740 times.
Lausanne 2020 also marked the first time the Olympic Channel operated during the Winter YOG, ensuring global coverage for the YOG as a worldwide digital rights-holder. The global media platform leveraged a multi-platform distribution strategy that included the web and applications for iOS, Android and connected TV devices complemented by social media to distribute its content and live event streaming. The highest viewership came from the host country of Switzerland, followed by Japan and the United States. Live events were a key driver of platform viewership, accounting for approximately 71 per cent of all video views, with an average watch time of 20.4 minutes, which represents a 142 per cent increase over Buenos Aires 2018.
Distribution of Olympic Channel content was extended to 41 members of the Olympic family, including olympic.org, lausanne2020.com, International Sports Federations and National Olympic Committees, maximising the reach of the YOG.
The Olympic Channel’s “digital first” coverage of Lausanne 2020 comprised 300 hours of live and on-demand event streaming, including a 24/7 Youth Olympic Games Channel that was distributed worldwide.
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