The Summer Olympic Games are considered by many to be the world's most prestigious and important international sporting event. Inspired by the ancient Greek games, Pierre de Coubertin oversaw the revival of the tournament in 1896. Since then, the Summer Games have been held every four years (except during the World Wars) and have grown in size throughout history. Athletes from the United States have generally been the most successful at each Games, winning over 1,000 gold medals and 2,600 total medals. Western European and Anglophone nations dominated the medals table in the early competitions. However, between the 1960s and 1990s, the Soviet Union and Eastern Bloc countries emerged as some of the strongest, while China has emerged as a new Olympic superpower since 2000. Athletes from several developing countries have also thrived in individual events, such as Jamaican sprinters or Kenyan distance runners. Women's participation has increased over time, from zero at the inaugural Games to near parity at the Tokyo Games. A number of mixed team events have been introduced at Tokyo 2020 to encourage this growth.

Between 1960 and 2020, the broadcasting revenues generated by the Summer Olympic Games have increased significantly, with the 2008 Beijing Games generating $163 million, the 2012 London Games $119 million and the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games $31 million.

This event will pose many structural challenges for sports streamers. A combination of disparate rights, disjointed platforms and rising prices is driving demand for more centralized services.
Data from the US shows that 87% of subscribers paying for sports streaming services want a single 'content hub'. They want all their sports subscriptions and more localized in one place.

The survey by online payment platform Bango, based on a poll of 2,000 sports VOD subscribers and 3,000 general subscribers, could be good news for NBCUniversal's Peacock, which has secured the rights to stream the Paris Olympics. It finds that 29% of American subscribers will sign up to a new streaming service to watch the Olympics this July. Among those who already pay for at least one sports VOD streaming platform, this figure rises to 66%.

More than half of sports streaming subscribers told Bango they can't afford all the subscriptions they want. Instead, more than a third (37%) regularly pause, cancel and re-subscribe to different services to keep costs down. Nearly three quarters said there are too many different subscription services to cover the sports they're interested in.

A centralized realignment of the streaming sports market is taking place. The most heavyweight of these is the imminent arrival of WarnerBros. Discovery and Fox and Disney/ESPN's all-in-one sports app.

Commenting on the survey results, Bango company says that more super bundles are inevitable and points to telcos as the glue that holds the services together. That's no surprise, given that Bango offers a SaaS product that enables super bundling of content subscriptions for telcos such as Verizon. Subscribers are apparently "crying out" for telcos to take control of the fragmented subscription market.

Paul Larbey (CEO of Bango) said: "Sports fans are willing to pay to watch the content they are interested in, and the reality is that this content will come from multiple providers. As a result, sports fans want to simplify this arrangement through easy billing and control of subscriptions. And they want flexibility and the ability to create their own bundles.

There is not much streaming data from Europe and the rest of the world yet, but we can expect the Olympics to be a major source of revenue for everyone. The Olympic Games are the world's only truly global, multi-sport, celebratory athletic competition. With more than 200 countries competing in over 400 events over the Summer and Winter Games, the Olympic Games are where the world comes to compete, to be inspired and to be together.

At this point, we could ask ourselves the following questions about the streaming services market? Will it be about competition, inspiration or being together? Can international sport unite streaming platforms to offer the best possible service to viewers?

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