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The past four decades have been a golden age for the International Olympic Committee, the Lausanne-based body that controls the Olympic Games. Income from the sale of media rights and from The Olympic Partners (TOP) worldwide sponsorship programme has put billions of dollars at the IOC’s disposal over each four-year summer games cycle.
But a mix of impending contract expiries, and profound change in media and advertising markets, suggests the next few years could be significantly more challenging for the IOC. Hence, it is especially important that Paris 2024 delivers a spectacular show.
Revenue growth has been impressive since TOP was first implemented over the Olympic cycle culminating in the 1988 Seoul Games. Broadcasting rights for that cycle yielded $727.5mn. For the cycle culminating in the Covid-impacted Tokyo Olympics, the total was $4.54bn, a more than six-fold rise. With TOP, the advance was even greater: from $96mn generated by the inaugural programme to just under $2.3bn for the most recent completed cycle.
A sense of change, however, is in the air. “Now, there is no question that there is a crossroads,” says former IOC marketing director Michael Payne.
On sponsorship, five of TOP’s 15 category-specific deals are scheduled to expire this year, with the companies concerned yet to agree to renew. Those five deals are with Atos (information technology), Bridgestone (tyres), Intel (5G tech platforms, AI platforms, drones and other items), Panasonic (audio, television and video equipment), and Toyota (vehicles).
On the media front, attention will need to turn reasonably soon to renewal of the $7.7bn agreement that forms the cornerstone of IOC finances. This was for US broadcasting rights to the Olympic Games between 2021 and 2032. That deal, with NBCUniversal, was announced in 2014 — namely, well in advance of when it came into effect.
“One of the first tasks for the next IOC president will be to get his head around what the IOC’s future broadcast policy is going to look like,” says Payne. “Will it be renewing with traditional broadcasters, or partnering with what are seen as the big new players, such as Amazon and Netflix, or streaming direct to viewers, or a combination of everything?”
The ways in which multinational corporations seek to market themselves and their products are also changing. This transformation is driven, in large part, by new technology and the power of data, which can yield potentially valuable new insights into consumer preferences and behaviour.
One factor that has not changed is sport’s capacity to trigger powerful emotions among a substantial proportion of people around the world. Hence, there is optimism that TOP can remain a compelling proposition for many large companies, provided it adapts.
“For decades, there have been 12 to 16 [companies] paying the asked fees to be part of [TOP], which makes me think it still works very well,” says Ricardo Fort, former global sponsorships head at TOP partners Visa and Coca-Cola, and founder of Sport by Fort Consulting. “Having said that, there are areas of improvement the IOC should explore such as (a) field-of-play branding, (b) better-tailored digital content for every partner, and (c) integration in media packages/on-screen branding,” he adds.
With the sectors that have underpinned the IOC’s prosperity therefore in a state of flux, it is imperative that Paris 2024 lays on impeccable organisation for representatives and guests of sponsors and broadcasters on the ground. Along with the IOC’s fortunes go those of the vast global ecosystem of National Olympic Committees and international sports federations it helps to support. In this regard, the choice as host of one of the world’s most familiar and telegenic cities, with good transport infrastructure and an unsurpassed tourist tradition, seems opportune.
Engaging a youthful audience is likely to be a particular focus, as indicated by the juxtaposition of four so-called “urban” sports — 3×3 basketball, breaking, skateboarding and BMX freestyle — in the extremely prominent city-centre location of Place de la Concorde.
Murray Barnett, founder of the 26West Sport consultancy, argues that, for best results, “a certain amount of experimentation needs to happen”. Young people, he says, are “more personality-driven” than older viewers. He sees it as unnecessary to worry too much about diluting the exclusivity of the traditional TV networks, whose rights fees have helped to sustain the Olympic movement, by making content available to video services and other media popular with the young. Barnett says: “The Twitch audience will not primarily be watching on NBC.”
Payne believes the “young generation will be fully engaged, worldwide, with Paris 2024”. He acknowledges that “we are only now getting a clearer understanding of how each generation is consuming content,” but argues “the value proposition of the Olympics is probably stronger today than it has ever been.”
To Payne, the simple idea of the world’s countries coming together remains powerful. “Seeing them compete together and the stories around the human effort — that resonates,” he says.
Fishing, firefighting, first aid and balloons: tales of the first Paris Olympics
After Athens 1896, the 1900 games in Paris were only the second Olympics of the modern era. Audiences, or at least takings, disappointed. One session of the croquet competition, which took place in the Bois de Boulogne, was thought to have attracted just one paying spectator — an Englishman up from Nice for the day.
Yet the games, as a whole, amounted to one of the most ambitious multi-sports extravaganzas ever. Events took place from mid-May to late October, with almost 59,000 competitors. These included 600 anglers, 3,000 first aiders and well over 7,000 firefighters. Rather fewer than 1,600 of the participants were foreigners.
First aid and firefighting events had obvious social utility. Even the angling contest, staged on the banks of the Seine, was justified in part by a need to cut the bill for freshwater fish imported from other countries.
Many events had potential military applications at a time of age-old rivalries among the great European powers. The many shooting contests included a programme for 90mm cannons, for French nationals only, conducted behind closed doors with 10,000 francs of prize money.
New technologies — for example, the motor car — were advancing at rapid pace. Motorsports included a gruelling long-distance race from Paris to Toulouse and back, with the winner picking up 8,000 francs.
Spectacular balloon contests tested competitors in the highly changeable Île de France winds. On touching down in rural Ain, west of Geneva, a contestant in one race was “taken for an English spy”. In the last race of the games, remarkable distances were covered, with contenders traversing Germany and crossing into eastern Europe. One contestant, Comte Henry de La Vaulx, touched down not far from Kyiv, more than 1,900km from Paris.
Another airborne war tool — the pigeon — featured in two roles: athlete and target. Six races were staged, involving well over 7,000 birds. Meanwhile, pigeon shooting — “a very aristocratic sport”, according to the official report — took place for cash prizes in the Bois de Boulogne.
Tug of war, polo and pelota were included, along with cycling, athletics and fencing. Swimming and water polo took place in the Seine. The archery competition included crossbow events.
Near the end of the games, a French rugby union team beat a side from Frankfurt 27-17 in front of 3,500 spectators. It was said to be the first time athletes from France and their fiercest recent military adversary, Germany, had met on a sports field.
Many of the problems with the games appear to have been of the type one might expect when arranging a gigantic one-off event in a dynamic international city. For example, the first day of motorsports was ruined when police stopped vehicles exiting their base. And the angling contest was severely impacted by what appears to have been a toxic leak that destroyed 30,000kg of fish.
The above is an edited extract from former FT sports editor David Owen’s book “Aux Armes! Sport and the French, an English perspective” — Forward Press (2024)
