This year's Olympics in Paris proved hugely popular on the RTBF: the public French-language broadcaster saw average viewership shoot up to a record 143,138 during its Olympic programming.
Its audience share (22.8%) was far higher than in previous Olympics: 16.3% for Tokyo, 14.4% for Rio, and 18.3% for London, the RTBF reported in a statement.
In total, over 3.1 million French-speaking Belgians tuned in to at least one moment of the Games.
Nafi Thiam attracts the most viewers
The viewer demographic was evenly split between males and females—an area of focus for the RTBF during the coverage - ensuring equal representation across its 220 hours of broadcast.
Belgian stars - unsurprisingly - attracted the most viewers. Heptathlon gold medallist Nafissatou Thiam topped the list, especially during her decisive 800-metre race (532,579 viewers).
Bronze medallist Fabio Van den Bossche’s last track cycling rounds garnered 341,819 viewers while Belgium’s women’s basketball match against France attracted 326,301 viewers from 9 p.m. to 11 p.m.
Closing ceremony commands a 39.7% audience share
The closing ceremony at Stade de France commanded a 37.9% audience share, a considerable improvement on the last three Games, with Tokyo at 17.6%, Rio at 16.4%, and London at 31.6%.
More specifically, the daily magazine 'A nous Paris,' aired on La Une, averaged 102,385 viewers, equivalent to a 12.6% audience share. This was double the share for its Tokyo Games counterpart in 2021, which recorded a 6.2% share.
Belgian sports feats also drew crowds to RTBF’s digital platforms. Auvio recorded 3.7 million views, while RTBF Actus logged two million during the fortnight, both live and on replay.
On RTBF Actus’s website, Olympics-related content accumulated 3.4 million page views and 1.1 million visitors. In addition, three million social media interactions and 31 million video views were recorded across RTBF’s platforms.
An average of 1.75 million viewers on VRT's Sporza channel
In Flanders, an average of 1.75 million viewers watched the various Olympic events daily on VRT’s Sporza channel, while an average 463,000 viewers streamed the broadcasts online.
VRT broadcast a total of 730 hours of sports within 16 days. Over 4.2 million Flemish viewers watched the television for one or another competition. That's equivalent to two out of every three Flemmings.
The days with the highest numbers of viewers were Saturday 3 August and Sunday 4 August: on each of these days over two million people followed the games on their TV sets.
Both days featured road cycling races, notably Remco Evenepoel clinching his second gold medal.
