Member broadcasters of the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) delivered record viewership for the 2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympic Games across key markets in the region.
Spanning linear and digital platforms, public service broadcasters across Europe outperformed their typical market shares, attracting hundreds of millions of viewers for their free-to-air coverage.
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In Austria, ORF’s coverage became the most-watched games in its history. The broadcaster’s digital engagement also hit a new high, with 290 million minutes streamed, 28 million video views, and 7.6 million net views.
Česká Televize’s Winter Olympics broadcast on its ČT Sport and ČT Sport Plus channels reached approximately 7.39 million viewers, a substantial increase compared with 5.46 million for the Beijing 2022 games.
The most-watched broadcast was the Czechia vs Canada ice hockey quarter-final, which averaged around 2.3 million viewers with a 59.5% audience share and achieved a total reach of nearly 3.9 million viewers.
In Finland, Yle reached 4.5 million viewers on linear broadcast, up from 4.1 million for both Beijing 2022 and Paris 2024. Daily TV reach averaged 2.5 million viewers and an average market share of 47.9%, while the ice hockey semi-final between Canada and Finland peaked at 2 million.
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By GlobalDataDigital audiences also set a new record, with 898 million minutes viewed on Yle Areena, up 69% from Paris 2024 and 165% from Beijing 2022.
In France, more than 50 million viewers followed coverage on France Télévisions. The France 2 channel peaked at 6.5 million viewers, capturing a 52% audience share, during coverage of the French biathletes’ gold and silver medal triumph.
ARD and ZDF delivered similarly strong performances in Germany, with ARD reaching around 40 million viewers on Das Erste. Its Olympic broadcasts averaged 3.14 million viewers with a 23.2% market share, while peak audiences hit 6.79 million for the doubles luge bronze medal race.
Digital engagement was particularly strong, generating more than 85 million video views across the ARD Mediathek and Sportschau.de, including over 65 million livestream views.
ZDF recorded an average viewership of around 3.2 million and a 23.3% market share across its coverage. Peak events, including luge and the biathlon mixed relay, attracted more than 6.5 million viewers, with the mixed relay reaching a 45.6% share.
In the host nation, Italy, it is claimed that two out of three Italians watched Rai’s coverage of the games, marking a higher proportion than for Paris 2024. The opening ceremony attracted more than 9.2 million viewers and a 46% share, while the closing ceremony drew over 6.2 million viewers and a 31% share.
In the Netherlands, NOS attracted approximately 12.3 million viewers (a 73.8% share) throughout the games, while NRK reached 4.1 million people across linear TV and online in Norway.
In Poland, TVP averaged 621,697 viewers for live Olympic coverage on its TVP1 channel, while TVP Sport more than doubled its Beijing performance, averaging 270,286 viewers.
Elsewhere, SVT reached 7.4 million viewers with its coverage in Sweden, representing the broadcaster’s highest Olympic reach since it last held the rights in 2012, despite having live rights to only around half of the events.
In Switzerland, SRG broadcasters RTS, RSI, and SRF reached 4.8 million TV viewers with its coverage of the games, RTV SLO drew 1.43 million viewers in Slovenia (a 75% share) across TV, radio, and digital platforms, and Suspilne reached approximately 5 million viewers in Ukraine. The Suspilne Sport YouTube channel also reached 5 million users, marking a platform record.
Earlier this week, the BBC revealed that its coverage of the Winter Olympics delivered its largest overall audience consumption ever, driven by a record 83 million streams and more than 44 million streamed hours across BBC iPlayer, the BBC Sport website, and app.
A total of 26.3 million viewers tuned in on TV, with a peak audience of 5.5 million for Team GB’s men’s curling final on BBC One.
Andreas Aristodemou, director of Olympics at the EBU, said: “Milano Cortina 2026 stands as the strongest Winter Olympic Games on record for EBU members, with audiences across Europe engaging at historic levels from the opening ceremony through to the final medal events.
“The breadth of engagement across broadcast, streaming, and digital platforms confirms the continued importance of universal access to major sporting events for audiences across Europe.
“Reach at this scale is something that only public service media can provide, bringing entire nations together free-to-air for moments that matter. We are proud to work in partnership with the IOC to ensure the Olympic Games remain accessible to the widest possible audiences across Europe.”
The EBU holds free-to-air rights to the Olympic Games as part of a broader European partnership with Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) 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.
In terms of other Olympic viewing numbers, WBD (Europe and the UK), NBC (the US), and CBC (Canada) all disclosed impressive streaming audiences.
NBC also announced that Team USA’s 2-1 overtime victory against Canada in Sunday’s men’s gold medal hockey game was watched by 20.7 million viewers across its linear NBC channel, Peacock streaming platform, and Versant’s USA Network, and peaked at 26.0 million live viewers on NBC and Peacock for the game-winning goal.
