2024’s edition of the Olympics: the ‘greatest show on Earth’ and world’s most entertaining, dramatic and diverse celebrations of sport has officially begun. While the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will take place this evening on Friday July 26 (find out everything you need to know about the ceremony here), the festivities have already started.
On Wednesday (July 24) both the rugby sevens and football competitions started (with one of the latter’s matches between Morocco and Argentina seeing quite a bit of chaos), while yesterday (July 25) saw handball and archery tournaments both got off to a flying start.
For those of us following from the UK, it’s substantially easier to watch this year’s Olympics in the UK than previous editions in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro – after all, Paris only has one hour’s time difference. Up to 500 hours of coverage will be free to watch or stream on the BBC, while all events will be shown on pay-to-view channels and streaming services.
Planning to get your four-yearly Olympic fix? Here’s everything you need to know about watching the Paris 2024 Olympics in the UK.
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🏋️♀️ The full schedule for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
🇬🇧 Where to watch the 2024 Olympic Games in London.
🇫🇷 Where to watch the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.
🎉 How to watch the Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony in the UK
What channel is the 2024 Paris Olympics on in the UK?
Olympics coverage in the UK will be split over several channels. All Brits will be able to watch free coverage on BBC One, which will run from 8am to 10pm each day. This coverage will switch to BBC Two during the news.
The BBC is also running an Olympics Extra channel on iPlayer that will show coverage from 8am to around 11pm.
However, the BBC won’t be showing all sports and all medals. There will be further coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympics on Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2, as well as online with Discovery+. Both Eurosport channels require either a Sky TV membership or subscription to Discovery+.
Streaming details
You’ll be able to find all BBC Olympics coverage to stream on its iPlayer hub here.
Discovery+ says it will ‘stream every medal and every moment’ with dedicated pages for each of the 32 Olympic sports. It’s also offering an Olympic package costing £3.99 that will let fans sign up just for the time the games are on. You can find out more on the Discovery+ website here.
Pay to watch
You can pay to watch on TVs, phones and tablets with Discovery+, which will have more than 55 channels and 3,800 hours of coverage. More info on signing up for that is available here.
Alternatively, Sky TV customers can simply activate a ‘standard plan’ for Discovery+.
Coverage start time and schedule
Coverage technically started well before today’s opening ceremony, with things kicking off on Wednesday (July 24) with the rugby sevens and football. Discovery+’s coverage also started yesterday, with men’s football and men’s rugby sevens both beginning at 2pm BST.
For the opening ceremony today, both BBC and Discovery+ coverage starts at 5.45pm.
BBC Olympic coverage presenters
The BBC’s coverage will be led by Clare Balding, Gabby Logan, Hazel Irvine, Isa Guha, Jeanette Kwakye, JJ Chalmers and Mark Chapman.
On TV, in the studio will be the likes of Dame Laura Kenny, Fred Sirieix, Sir Chris Hoy, Dame Denise Lewis, Dame Jessica Ennis-Hill, Kate Richardson-Walsh, Beth Tweddle, Dame Katherine Grainger, Mark Foster, Michael Johnson, Nicola Adams and Rebecca Adlington.
Radio 5 Live coverage will be led by Adrian Chiles, Mark Chapman, Tony Livesey, Eleanor Oldroyd and Kelly Cates, with others providing analysis.
Why can’t UK viewers watch all the sports live on the BBC?
Before the last Olympic Games in Tokyo, the BBC was able to have 24 streams showing every Olympic event at the same time. However, a 2015 deal between the International Olympic Committee and WBD (owner of Eurosport, Discovery and Discovery+) severely reduced the amount of BBC coverage.
The current agreement, which allows the BBC to show two live events at any one time and a total of 500 hours of coverage, will run until at least 2032.
Week 1 events
The first week will, as always with the Olympics, pack in an astonishing number of events. Some of the biggest ones to watch out for are bits of (but not necessarily the finals of) road cycling, swimming, diving, triathlon, rowing and gymnastics.
You can find a full schedule for the Paris 2024 Olympics here.
Opening ceremony date
The opening ceremony will begin later today on Friday July 26, with the ceremony kicking off at 6.30pm BST (7.30pm local time in Paris).
The actual games will kick off at 8.24pm local time (or 20.24 on a 24-hour clock – clever, eh?), which is 7.24pm in the UK.
Disruption in Paris
Just hours before the opening ceremony officially marks the start of the Games, Paris’ transport network has been plunged into chaos.
French rail company SNCF says it has been hit by arson attacks ‘aimed at paralysing the network’, impacting high-speed train services around Paris. The incidents have struck the SNCF’s Atlantic, North and East lines, impacting 800,000 people. Disruption is expected to last all weekend.
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