Olympics Break Broadcasting Records

Largest British T.V. Event

BBC, Britain’s Olympic broadcaster, says the London 2012 Olympics were the biggest national television event in history. 

A statement posted on the BBC’s website says 52 million Brits, 90 percent of the population, tuned in to at least 15 minutes of Games time broadcasts. The second largest national event was the 2002 World Cup which commanded 82 percent of the British audience.

"It's been a phenomenal Games and Team GB's amazing achievements have helped draw huge audiences to BBC One and put the channel right at the heart of the action," said BBC One Controller, Danny Cohen.

The opening and closing ceremonies were the two most-watched events on BBC, with 27.3 million and 26.3 million viewers respectively. Usain Bolt’s 100m final run was the highest rated sport broadcast with 20 million viewers tuning in.



NBC Announces "Most-Watched" and "Most Social" Games Ever

According to statements released to ATR by NBC Universal, the London Olympics was both the "most-watched television event in US history" and "the most social Games ever for NBC Olympics".

More than 219 million viewers tuned in for NBC’s primetime coverage of the Games, surpassing the Beijing 2008 Olympics by 12 percent and the Athens 2000 Olympics by 26 percent.

NBC partnered with Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Shazam, and generated Olympic content on Google+, Instagram, Tumblr and GetGlue.

These efforts resulted in 36 million of the 83 million social comments made over the course of the Games being "driven by NBCU telecasts". According to the network, this figure represents more comments than "the 2012 Super Bowl, 2012 Grammys, 2012 Oscars, 2012 Golden Globes, and all seven games of the 2011 World Series combined".

NBC also reported that "99 percent of all social TV buzz was attributed to the primetime Olympics telecasts" between the hours of 7pm and midnight.



Spanish Figures

The gold medal basketball game between the United States and Spain became the most watched sporting event in Spanish history.

A report from Spanish news agency EFE says at one point, 6.5 million Spaniards watched the game for a 53 percent share of the television audience. 

Only two events had higher ratings: the Spain and Honduras football match with 4.1 million viewers and the opening ceremony with 5.7 million.

Multi-Million Loss for Australia’s Nine

The Nine Network is set to take a multi-million dollar loss from London 2012. 

Speaking to The Sun-Herald, Jeff Browne, Nine’s managing director, said the company would lose "less than $20 million" on the Olympics. Nine split the broadcast rights with pay service Foxtel for $126 million.

A report in Australian media says Foxtel drew "modest but positive" subscriber growth from the Games. 



The Sydney Morning Herald reports 2.41 million Australians watched a live broadcast of the opening ceremony, shown in the early morning of Australia. A replay drew 1.81 viewers. 



CTV "Golden Halo"

Nearly 32 million Canadians watched a part of the London 2012 Olympics on CTV.

Figures from the network also say that the closing ceremony was the most popular broadcast with an average viewership of 7.5 million.

Six million people watched the 100m final.

Canada’s CTV News saw double digit viewership increases as a result of the Olympics.

"Canadians consistently choose CTV News as their source for news during historic events," said Wendy Freeman, President, CTV News. "We served viewers throughout the Olympic Games with the same quality journalism that viewers expect from CTV News every day."

Written by Ed Hula III.

20 Years at #1: