How to watch the Paris 2024 Olympics in the UK for free, including channel and schedule (2024)

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Up to 500 hours of the Olympic Games will be free to watch on BBC, while Discovery+ will boast 3,800 hours of paid coverage

Written by

Ed Cunningham

News Editor, Time Out UK and Time Out LondonThursday 25 July 2024

How to watch the Paris 2024 Olympics in the UK for free, including channel and schedule (2)

The 2024 editionof the world’s most entertaining, dramatic anddiverse celebrations of sport is already underway. While theopening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Paris will take place this Friday July 26 (find out everything you need to know about the ceremony here), the festivities have begun. Yesterday (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).

From the UK it’ssubstantially easier to watch this year’s Olympics in the UK than previous editions in Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro–after all,Parisonly hasone 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.

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 the opening ceremony, with things kicking off yesterday (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, 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 be 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.

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