The closing ceremony of the Paralympic Games took the form of a huge electronic party on the evening of Sunday 8 September, ending the Paris 2024 Olympic adventure as it began: in the rain. Some 7.7 million viewers watched the event on television on France 2, corresponding to an audience share of 37.7%, according to figures from Médiamétrie published on Monday.
Broadcast live from the Stade de France from 8.30pm to 11.05pm, the ceremony placed a strong emphasis on electronic music, with performances by 24 French DJs, including big names such as Jean-Michel Jarre, Etienne de Crécy and Martin Solveig.
On 28 August, the opening ceremony, which took place on the Champs-Élysées and Place de la Concorde, was watched by 10.2 million people, with a higher audience share (52.3%). While the opening and closing ceremonies of the Olympic Games attracted 23.2 and 17.1 million live viewers respectively.
The Paris 2024 sequence – with the Olympic Games (26 July to 11 August) and, to a lesser extent, the Paralympic Games (28 August to 8 September) – was a strong audience draw for France Télévisions, its broadcaster. The public group’s main channel, France 2, was first in France in August, ahead of TF1, with a 23.3% audience share for the entire month, according to Médiamétrie data published on 2 September.
The Paralympic Games enjoyed unprecedented coverage on France Télévisions, with 300 hours of live coverage, compared to 100 for the previous edition in Tokyo in 2021 and less than 10 hours in London in 2012.
