Member broadcasters of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) attracted large audiences for the opening week of the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games across the region.
In Italy, public-service broadcaster Rai recorded a peak audience of 4.9 million for its early alpine skiing coverage as Italy’s Sofia Goggia secured bronze in the women’s downhill.
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This compares with a peak of 712,000 for the same event during Beijing 2022.
In Sweden, SVT achieved a total cross-platform reach of 6 million viewers for Milan Cortina 2026 as of 10 February, representing around 60% of the Swedish population.
Mixed curling has emerged as the standout event so far, with the gold medal-winning performance of the Wranaa siblings attracting a total reach of approximately 3 million viewers for the final.
The SVT Play streaming service has reached 2.1 million viewers during the games so far. Olympic coverage has returned to SVT after a 14-year interval.
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By GlobalDataSwiss public broadcasters RTS, RSI, and SRF recorded a combined average audience of over 1 million viewers for both the men’s downhill race (1.2 million viewers) and the women’s downhill race (1.1 million), meanwhile.
More broadly, during the first six days of the games, the broadcasters reached more than 3.4 million people with their Winter Olympics television coverage.
NPO 1 in the Netherlands averaged 3.96 million viewers for Jutta Leerdam’s gold medal performance in the women’s 1000m speed skating, marking one of the highest audiences for any programme on Dutch television in more than three years.
In Germany, extensive coverage is being provided by prominent public service broadcasters ARD and ZDF, with the latter’s live broadcasts averaging 3.3 million viewers, a 25.3% market share, while peak performances include 6.6 million viewers for luge and 6.5 million for biathlon mixed relay.
Meanwhile, in France, 43 million viewers have watched at least one minute of Milan Cortina coverage on France Télévisions, 10 million more than at the same stage of both the Beijing 2022 and PyeongChang 2018 Winter Games and the highest level recorded since 2006.
Since the start of the games, viewers in that market have watched more than three hours of coverage on average, double the level recorded after six days of competition in 2022.
France Télévisions’ recently launched streaming platform, france.tv, has recorded 21 million video views for the Olympic Games to date, already surpassing the total achieved across the entire duration of the 2022 and 2018 Winter games.
In Austria, ORF recorded peak audiences of up to 1.27 million viewers for the women’s downhill, delivering a 69% market share and the most-watched women’s Olympic downhill since 2010.
The women’s Big Air final in the freestyle skiing attracted a peak of 914,000 viewers, the highest audience for an Olympic snowboarding event on ORF since 2014.
In Norway, the nation currently topping the medals table, total viewership across NRK1 stands at just under 5.4 million, representing an increase of approximately 44% compared with Beijing 2022. NRK has returned to free-to-air Olympic coverage after 14 years.
For Finland, Yle surpassed one million viewers across 25 broadcasts by the end of day 12. Finland’s first men’s ice hockey match achieved the highest reach at 2.2 million viewers. Cumulative reach on television in the country has already climbed to 3.78 million, performing better than Paris 2024 at the same stage.
The BBC’s multi-platform coverage of the Winter Olympics has also delivered strong viewership figures across digital platforms and linear TV output in the UK, with more than 20 million viewers tuning in to the UK public broadcaster’s TV coverage to date, with peak audiences reaching 3.6 million for the most-watched moments.
In Czechia, Česká Televize set new viewing records for biathlon coverage. Sunday’s mixed relay attracted 1.7 million viewers, surpassing the previous Olympic record of 1.25 million set during PyeongChang 2018. Overall, viewing figures have tripled compared with the last Winter Olympics.
Andreas Aristodemou, EBU director of Olympics, has said: “The opening week of Milano Cortina 2026 has delivered outstanding sporting moments that are clearly resonating with audiences across Europe.
“These early figures demonstrate the enduring appeal of the Olympic Winter Games and highlight the unmatched reach of public service media in bringing these global events to viewers across Europe.”
The EBU holds free-to-air rights to the Olympic Games as part of a broader European partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery spanning both free-to-air and pay television platforms from 2026 to 2032, covering 49 territories.
As well as the Milan Cortina games, the deal encompasses LA 2028, the 2030 Winter Olympics, and Brisbane 2032.
