Channel 4 Unveils Biggest-Ever Broadcast Plans for Paris 2024 Paralympic Games

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games is set to be the biggest ever broadcast on Channel 4 with over 1,300 hours of live sport airing for free across Channel 4, More4, Channel 4 Streaming and Channel 4 Sport’s YouTube. From the first moment of the Opening Ceremony on Wednesday 28 August to the final seconds of the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 8th September, Channel 4 will bring viewers all the action, medals and must-see moments from every Paralympic venue across Paris.

Building on the pioneering achievements of previous Paralympic coverage, Paris 2024 is set to be Channel 4’s most accessible Games to date. All content will be broadcast with subtitles, live peak time sport on Channel 4 will have closed audio description, while live sport on More4 and Channel 4 Streaming on weekday afternoons will include BSL live signing.

The Opening and Closing Ceremonies are to be simulcast on 4Seven and Channel 4 Streaming with BSL and open descriptive commentary. Plus, all episodes of The Last Leg and daily highlights programmes will be simulcast on 4Seven and Channel 4 Streaming with BSL live signing. Daily highlights on Channel 4 will also have live closed audio description.

Over the 12-day event, coverage starts at breakfast time and follows all the medals and stories of the day until the action concludes, broadcasting across two channels and Channel 4 Streaming, plus, as previously announced, every televised moment of the Paralympics streaming on Channel 4 Sport’s YouTube channel, with up to 18 concurrent streams. For the first time since London 2012, the key finals and podium moments will take place in primetime viewing as we bring the UK together to celebrate Paralympic sport. C’est magnifique!

Channel 4’s elite team of presenters, pundits, reporters and commentators sees Ade Adepitan return for Paris 2024, joined by five-time Paralympic swimming champion and BAFTA-winner Ellie Simmonds, who makes her Channel 4 presentation debut. Actress, producer and activist Rose Ayling-Ellis presents live for the first time as she hosts alongside Clare Balding from a new position inside the Athletes’ Village.

Also on the team are racing-driver-turned-commentator Billy Monger, Invictus Games medallist and presenter JJ Chalmers, adventurer and former rugby union player Ed Jackson, TV and radio presenter Vick Hope, comedian Josh Pugh and sports presenter Lee McKenzie.

Capturing the mood and celebrations across the French capital, viewers will be taken up close to both the sport and the city with our reporters inside the venues and on the streets of Paris. A mix of young and emerging talent include content creator and comedian Fats Timbo, ex-rugby player and Gladiators’ ‘Fury’ Jodie Ounsley, Paralympic gold-medal swimmer Ellie Robinson, award-winning actor Lenny Rush, content creator Milly Pickles, wheelchair basketball player Gaz Choudhry, sports reporter Jordan Jarrett-Bryan and actor and star of Netflix’s Sex Education, George Robinson.

Meanwhile, expert punditry and analysis across the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games will be provided by multi-Paralympic medallist Baroness Tanni Grey Thompson, the most decorated Paralympian of all time Dame Sarah Storey, Paralympic gold-medal sprinter Libby Clegg, former ParalympicsGB wheelchair rugby captain Steve Brown, Paralympic gold-medal athlete Danny Crates and wheelchair tennis players Louise Hunt and Jayant Mistry.

And when the sporting action concludes, The Last Leg takes over as Adam Hills, Alex Brooker and Josh Widdicombe are live in Paris throughout the Games to give their unique take on the day’s events, all with their usual comedic twist. They’ll also be joined by a variety of guests and a live studio audience.

On More4, presenter Arthur Williams leads the coverage of team sports, alongside former Paralympic swimmers Kate Ager and Rachael Latham. Every match of the wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby campaigns will be broadcast, as well as comprehensive coverage of team equestrian events and the big table tennis and boccia matches.

Coverage of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games is produced for Channel 4 by Whisper and features multiple studios and locations across the city - including at the Stade De France, La Défense Arena, the Athletes’ Village, ParalympicsGB House and the Pont Alexandre III - capturing both the majesty of Paris and the elite sporting action.

For the first time, our remote galleries and back-of-house production team will be based in Cardiff where a new state-of-the-art facility is being built for the Games to house around 200 people working on Channel 4’s Paralympics coverage, including 16 disabled people from the broadcaster’s Paralympics Production Trainee Scheme. The 2024 Paris Paralympics will be the biggest ever sports production in Wales and it is hoped the new, fully accessible hub will leave a lasting legacy for the nation.

Alex Mahon, CEO at Channel 4, said, “Every Paralympic Games we see the transformative power of sport on display. At Channel 4 we are thrilled to be bringing the Paralympics back, bigger and better than ever before.

“We’re incredibly proud that these will be the most accessible Games yet and that we will make the sport available across even more platforms. It means everyone can witness the soaring success and drama of these elite sports. I can guarantee that our ground-breaking presenting team will provide unprecedented fun, insights and viewpoints.

“We’ve seen how previous Games have challenged attitudes and in 2024 we will do even more to show sports stars at their peak.”

Channel 4 has been the official UK Paralympic broadcaster since taking over coverage of the Paralympics in 2012, with coverage of London 2012 regularly cited as a key moment in helping shift public perceptions around disability and disability sport. The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games is overseen at Channel 4 by Pete Andrews, Channel 4’s Head of Sport, Antonia Howard-Taylor, Commissioning Executive for Sport and Live Events, and Joe Blake-Turner, Commissioning Editor, Sport.

Executive producers for Whisper are Sunil Patel, Mark Cole, Liz Johnson, Matt Roberts and Pete Thomas.

The Last Leg is commissioned for Channel 4 by Cimran Shah, Commissioning Editor, Reality & Entertainment. The executive producers are Andrew Beint and Danny Carr, with Tom Messer as series producer.

In addition to live coverage of the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, sponsored by Allianz and Toyota across Channel 4, More 4, Channel 4 Streaming and social channels, Channel 4 will also broadcast a series of documentaries in the build up to the Games.

These include a two-part series – Path to Paris: The Hunt for Gold (21.07.24 tbc) and Path to Paris: Paralympic Dreams (25.08.24 tbc) - which follows British athletes as they prepare for the summer Olympics and Paralympics in Paris 2024.

Britain’s most decorated Paralympian Dame Sarah Storey presents Paris 24: Meet the Paralympians with Sarah Storey (24.08.24 tbc) where she finds out more about her teammates Will Bayley (table tennis), Susannah Hext (swimming), David Smith (boccia) and Jaco Van Gas (cycling).

Equal Play (26.08.24 tbc), a one-off documentary featuring Paralympian Hannah Cockcroft, investigates how school students with disabilities can find themselves isolated and excluded due to the lack of opportunities to take part in sports and physical education.

Plus, a series of 12 three-minute films profiling British Paralympians will also play out each evening after Channel 4 News in the weeks leading up to the Games. Starting on Monday 15th July, the films are the maiden commission for Ade Adepitan’s Bolla Media production company.