By Connie Thiessen
More than 11 million Canadians tuned in to CBC/Radio-Canada’s broadcast coverage of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games over 12 days.
This year’s coverage included three live daily shows on CBC television, and more than 1,000 hours of live streaming content on CBC Gem, its dedicated Paris 2024 website, and CBC’s Paris 2024 app. Canada competed in 18 of the event’s 22 sports.
CBC’s Paris 2024 coverage marked the most coverage in Canada of a Paralympic Games to date, with the public broadcaster noting record audience increases across broadcast, digital and streaming, which it says illustrates Canadians’ increased interest in Paralympic competition.
Canadians spent an average of 1.2 million hours each day watching CBC’s Paralympic Games broadcast coverage, up 119 per cent from Tokyo 2020.
Audiences in Canada also consumed a record-breaking 614,000 hours of Paris 2024 content on CBC/Radio-Canada’s digital and streaming platforms, an increase of 153 per cent over Tokyo 2020. Time spent streaming Paralympics content on CBC Gem increased 537 per cent from Tokyo 2020.
Over four million Canadians tuned in to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games Opening Ceremony on August 28 across English and French TV networks, up 118% over the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony. On CBC, the Opening Ceremony garnered a 2+ average minute audience of 216,000, up 188 per cent over the Tokyo 2020 Opening Ceremony.
The Closing Ceremony was tuned by 3.2 million Canadians on Sept. 8 across the public broadcaster’s English and French TV networks, up 60 per cent over the Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony. The Closing Ceremony on CBC garnered a 2+ average minute audience of 194,000, up nearly 100 per cent from the Tokyo 2020 Closing Ceremony.
CBC/Radio-Canada will also be the Canadian host broadcaster for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Paralympic Games, March 6 – 15, 2026.
