In 2021, the Olympics looked a lot different. The Tokyo Games were postponed a year due to COVID, with many events held in empty stadiums. As such, the whole event was scaled back compared to the usual affair.
However, the Paris Games are a return to form. The French capital hosted an ambitious (if wet) opening ceremony along the River Seine and introduced breakdancing to the line-up of sports.
If you’d like to catch the rest of the action of the XXXIII Olympiad, we have everything you need to know, including the closing ceremony date and time, the channels and streaming services the games are on, the broad schedule of events and more.
You can also check out 10 events you shouldn’t miss from the Paris 2024 Olympics .
When is the Paris 2024 Olympics?
The Paris Olympics kicked off on Friday 26 July 2024 with the opening ceremony. They will conclude with the closing ceremony, which will take place on Sunday 11 August 2024 .
A few weeks after that, the Paralympics will begin.
Paris 2024 / Damien Le Gallo / Viparis
When does the Paris 2024 Olympic closing ceremony start?
Here’s what time the closing ceremony for this year’s Olympics takes place across the world on Sunday 11 August 2024:
- UK – 8pm BST
- East Coast US – 3pm ET
- West Coast US – 12pm PT
- France – 9pm CET
The opening ceremony was held on the River Seine, and encountered many issues due to the rain. Fortunately, that won’t happen with the closing ceremony.
This will be held in the Stade de France in Saint-Denis, where the athletics events are currently taking place. It will run for around two hours and fifteen minutes.
The next Olympic Games in 2028 will take place in Los Angeles, USA. Therefore, there are rumours of several American guest stars, including Tom Cruise (who may be involved in a stunt sequence), and even pop sensation Taylor Swift.
Before then, there are still plenty more sports to come – including the hotly anticipated 4×100 metre relays.
How to watch the Olympics in the UK
There are several ways to catch the action of the Olympics in the UK. The most popular events will be available on the BBC. However, if you want completely unfiltered access, you’ll want access to Eurosport.
Here’s more information on how to watch them on traditional TV, and for streaming.
Broadcast TV
For standard access, coverage will be split between BBC One and BBC Two in the UK, with over 250 hours of live coverage airing. Clare Balding and Gabby Logan will be joined by plenty more sports personalities for commentary.
You can watch both these channels for free if you have a TV licence, with access via Freeview, Virgin, Sky and EE TV/BT.
If you’d prefer to watch every sport available (including the more obscure ones), then your best option is Eurosport. Coverage will be split across Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2, starting from 7am until 10:30pm every day that the competition is on. These channels are available as premium add-ons for Sky, Virgin Media and EE TV/BT.
Eurosport is the only way to watch the Olympic Games in 4K in the UK .
Both the BBC and Eurosport will be airing highlights throughout the Games, should you miss anything.
Online
If you prefer to stream your content, then both the BBC and Eurosport have options available.
BBC iPlayer not only includes live coverage from BBC One and Two, but a dedicated livestream called Olympics Extra with additional events. This website is free to access, providing you have a TV licence.
Meanwhile, Eurosport content can be watched via a Discovery+ Standard subscription . From 17 July until the end of the Olympics, this will cost just £3.99 per month, and the platform will honour this price until December 2024. After that, the price will increase to the standard amount of £6.99 per month.
Subscribing to Discovery+ grants access to both Eurosport 1 and 2, seven pop-up Olympic channels, gold medal alerts in the app and curated playlists for various sports.
Summer Olympics Paris 2014 UK presenter lineup.
Olympics on Discovery+
How to watch the Olympics in the US
In the US, the rights to the Olympics fall to NBC, rather than multiple holders. Here are all the ways to tune in.
Broadcast TV
You’ll be able to watch the opening ceremony and sporting events from Team USA over on NBC, which will air over nine hours of events every day, along with profiles and highlights. Some events will also air on USA Network, E!, CNBC and Golf Channel.
Xfinity Reward members also have access to the Olympics hub and Passport to Paris, where they can collate stamps of events watched to claim rewards.
These channels will be available if you have a cable TV package with them included. If you don’t then there is another way.
Online
There will also be celebrity hosts for certain segments, including renowned rapper Snoop Dogg and host of the Call Her Daddy podcast, Alex Cooper. The app will include multiview for different sports, and AI-generated roundups of the events of the day.
Livestreams, highlights and commentary will also be shown on NBCOlympics.com , NBC.com , the NBC Olympics app, the NBC Sports app and the NBC app.
Finally, you can also access NBC’s channels via premium TV subscriptions such as Fubo , Sling , Hulu with live TV and YouTube TV .
How to watch the Olympics from abroad
If you’re travelling while the Olympics are on, then it’s likely that the Games will still be broadcast in your local country. Here’s the official worldwide channel list .
Alternatively, you can read our guides on how to watch BBC iPlayer from abroad , and how to watch Peacock from abroad .
Paris 2024 Olympic Games schedule
If you want a full breakdown of timings for each day, then check out the official Olympics schedule . However, here’s what dates each sport will air, in alphabetical order.
Some take place before the opening ceremony, and not all sports are each day. The official website has a breakdown of which days are medal events:
Author: Hannah Cowton-Barnes, Entertainment Editor, Tech Advisor
As Tech Advisor’s Entertainment Editor, Hannah is the resident expert in all things streaming, film and TV. Before joining Tech Advisor in 2019, she studied Theatre and Performance at the University of Leeds and created a website dedicated to geek culture and lifestyle. She’s also reviewed a whole range of gadgets including flagship smartphones, wearables and styling tools. Outside of Foundry, she’s written freelance pieces for Polygon, Metro and Den of Geek, and is proud to be a Women Techmakers Ambassador for Google.
Recent stories by Hannah Cowton-Barnes:
- Harry Potter TV series has finally revealed a release window
- Jessica Jones returns in Daredevil: Born Again season 2 trailer
- The Traitors will return for season 5 with new twists and challenges
