Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) is offering the public a preview of its plans to cover the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
On Wednesday, the media and entertainment giant showed off its Paris-based studios and production facility that will serve as the central hub of its Olympics coverage.
WBD shares pan-European rights to the Summer Olympic Games with some domestic broadcasters. Live events and related coverage will air across WBD’s entertainment properties, including Eurosport, Discovery Plus, Max and TNT Sports.
Executives at WBD affirm the company will produce over 5,000 hours of live Olympic sports broadcasts across its linear channels and streaming platforms. Viewers who tune in to Eurosport, Max or Discovery Plus to watch WBD’s coverage of the Summer Olympic Games will be immersed in the sights and sounds of Paris from the prestigious Hotel Raphael, which WBD has commissioned to serve as the main backdrop of its studio-based coverage.
The company is calling the hotel “WBD House,” which will be “home to the best-in-class programming and analysis, and is set to welcome some of the highest profile competing athletes and dignitaries to its studios throughout the Games.”
WBD House will cover four broadcast studios that will be used by production teams from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden, Poland and Italy. It will include three stand-up positions, one of which WBD will reserve for its international news channel CNN.
Other live broadcasts will originate from WBD-owned or leased production facilities in Spain, Finland and Denmark. The various content hubs will allow WBD’s production teams to cross-collaborate, providing a true pan-European experience for the Olympic Games, the company said.
WBD will also rely on its production staff in Atlanta to help facilitate an “always-on” experience for its European viewers, with the promise that the company’s sports channels and platforms will deliver around-the-clock highlights and programming from the Summer Games, irrespective of the time of day or night.
“Today marks the momentous milestone of 100 Days to Go until the Olympics return to Europe and the final countdown to Paris 2024 begins, as well as the launch of our Summer of Sport,” Scott Young, the Group Senior Vice President of Content, Production and Business Operations at WBD Sports Europe, said in a statement. “This year, we will have even more live hours of action from the greatest variety of events, more original content and non-live programming to keep fans engaged, and the greatest storytelling engine anywhere to continue serving sports fans with round-the-clock action, news and entertainment as sporting history is set to be made this summer.”
WBD is building on its success from covering the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, when it streamed more than 1 billion minutes of live programming and related content across the Eurosport app and Discovery Plus. In some regions, Discovery Plus will go away next month and be replaced by Max, which will offer comparable programming for the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
