3 Ways the 2024 Paris Olympics Will Be the Sporting Event of the Summer

The start of the 2024 Paris Olympics will be here before we know it. While organizers race to finish preparations for world’s largest sporting event, businesses large and small are quickly assembling their advertising strategies in hopes of building their brand through this expansive, multi-platform cable and streaming event.

Although advertisers can look to past Olympics as they set their expectations for this year, each Olympics is, in some ways, its own event. Different host locations can influence TV broadcast schedules, while rapid changes to the streaming TV landscape are shaping how this year’s audiences will follow their favorite events.

With that in mind, here are three big ways the 2024 Paris Olympics will be different from any other.

1. TV Audiences Will Get Treated to a Scenic Tour of Paris

For a city so strongly associated with culture and beauty, hosting the Olympics comes with the burden of showcasing these qualities not only to in-person attendees, but to viewers all around the world.

To some extent, every host uses this global event to highlight its landscape, history, culture and attractions. But Paris is building much of its presentation of the Olympics around the iconic architecture and scenery of the city itself. Those efforts will be on full display during the opening ceremony, which will perform its traditional parade of athletes by floating those competitors on boats down a four-mile stretch of the Seine before delivering them to the foot of the Eiffel Tower.

That’s only the start of Paris’ picturesque plans. A number of jaw-dropping competition venues are planned for the nearly three-week competition, including:

• A beach volleyball court placed at the foot of the Eiffel Tower;
• Fencing and taekwondo matches held at the historic Grand Palais;
• Four different Olympics events hosted on the grounds of the sprawling Concorde;
• Equestrian and pentathlon competitions featured at the Palace of Versailles, a UNESCO World Heritage site.

The Parisian backdrop of these Olympics events will offer incredible appeal to TV audiences, creating even more incentive to tune in.

2. Four TV-Friendly Competitions Will Debut

Most Olympics feature new medal competitions, and this year is no different. Four new Olympic sports will debut in Paris: breakdancing, surfing, skateboarding, and sport climbing.

While the popularity of these new events may vary from one country to the next, each is expected to have appeal to U.S. audiences—if only because fans will be eager to see what these competitions look like on an Olympic stage.

The newly added competitions will be an unknown factor as advertisers plan out their Olympics media buys, but this could signal a promising opportunity for businesses to connect with niche audiences.

3. For the First Time Ever, the Olympics Will Host an Equal Number of Male and Female Athletes

Men have traditionally sent a greater number of athletes than women, but no longer: in 2024, the 10,500 athletes will feature an even mix of men and women.

Men and women will each account for 5,250 competitors in the 2024 Paris Olympics field, achieving a key milestone to improve its support for female athletes. A growing field evenly balanced among men and women could also increase interest among America’s large population of female Olympics fans.

All Olympics events will be available to watch live throughout NBCUniversal’s networks, including USA, the official cable home of the 2024 Paris Olympics with 24/7 coverage. With more video inventory than ever before, local businesses have incredible buying options when seeking cost-efficient advertising around the 2024 Paris Olympics. Cox Media’s experts can help you plan media buys that suit your budget and are aligned with your business’s advertising goals.

Take action now, before those ad inventories are claimed by your competitors—contact us today to get started.