Channel 4 has been awarded UK television rights to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games following an agreement with the International Paralympic Committee.
Since replacing the BBC as the Paralympic Games UK rights holder in 2012 the broadcaster has covered London 2012 and Rio 2016, whilst also preparing for Tokyo 2020, which is delayed until 2021 due to the global health pandemic.
The announcement comes exactly four years until the events opening ceremony with viewership for the Paralympics continuing to grow with every Games, especially Rio 2024 which broke UK viewing records for Paralympic sport.
Andrew Parsons, IPC President, stated: “We are delighted that Channel 4, a broadcaster with a global reputation for its stunning Paralympic coverage, has been awarded the broadcast rights to the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.
“With London 2012 and Rio 2016, Channel 4 created a blueprint for how a commercial broadcaster can raise the profile of Paralympic sport and its athletes to new levels.
“They have reached record audiences, in particular young people, identified and developed some fantastic new presenting talent and played a significant role in delivering seismic shifts in attitudes and perceptions towards people with an impairment in the UK.”
As a result of the deal Channel 4 will gain multi-platform broadcast rights to the summer Games in Paris. The agreement does not include rights to the 2022 winter Games in Beijing, with the event being sold separately.
Alex Mahon, Channel 4 Chief Executive, said: “The Paralympic Games is at the heart of what we do at Channel 4 and we are proud to have been the Paralympic broadcaster since London 2012.
We truly believe in the transformative power of sport and have been using the Paralympics to inspire change in attitudes towards disability in the UK since 2012.
“We believe with passion that the Paralympic Games can enrapture audiences, with high quality, dramatic, elite sport, and also drive social change in the perceptions of disability. There is nothing else quite like it.”
Paris 2024 will be a monumental occasion for the Paralympic sports with the event being the first ever summer edition to be organised in France. Moreover, Paris 2024 will feature a single emblem to ‘place the Paralympic Games and the Olympic Games at the same level’.
