By Karolos Grohmann
The International Olympic Committee said viewing figures in
key regions, including the United States, were very promising
and would eclipse past records set at the Athens 2004 Olympics.
"The Beijing Games look set to become the biggest
broadcasted event in Olympic history," IOC director of TV and
marketing services Timo Lumme told reporters. "Ratings are
higher than for any Olympics before."
The Games opening ceremony on August 8 has already gone
down as the highest sports related broadcast event in China
with a record 840 million viewers and is expected to have been
seen by more than 1.2 billion people worldwide when final
figures come in.
Lumme said U.S. broadcaster NBC, which holds exclusive
rights for the United States having paid nearly $900 million,
also recorded its largest Saturday night audience in 18 years
when it broadcast U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps's record-breaking
eighth Olympic gold medal winning swim.
"That had an audience of 40 million (in the United
States)," Lumme said, adding that the Beijing Games would even
eclipse overall U.S. ratings of the Atlanta 1996 Games which
attracted many American viewers due to the convenient
competition times and because of home support.
Ratings were also promising in many other countries
including Britain, already with their biggest gold medal haul
in a century, and India which won their first ever individual
gold at the Beijing Games.
MAJOR SUCCESS
The IOC, eager to stem a rise of the average age among its
Olympic TV viewers, has launched an Olympic channel on the
video-sharing site YouTube, offering daily compilations of
clips.
Lumme said the use of the Internet for Games broadcasts,
which at the Athens Games was still in its infancy, has been a
major success, with the NBColympics website alone recording
30 times more video views than in Athens, viewing more than 22
million clips.
"In China alone more than 102 million people watched the
Games live on line," Lumme said. Many more watched recorded
segments.
The IOC's own website had recorded more visits in the first
week of the Beijing Games than throughout all of the Athens
Olympics.
The IOC has yet to sign contract deals for the 2014-2016
Games package.
"The interest globally for the Olympics is growing," Lumme
said. "This is because now there are many more media platforms
available," Lumme said.
(Editing by Jon Bramley)
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