Olympic Opening Ceremony Draws Strong Viewership

LONDON: Danny Boyle’s Olympic opening ceremony garnered nearly 27 million viewers in the U.K. on BBC One and set records in the U.S. on NBC as well as in Canada.

The average viewership on BBC One for the four-hour event was 22.4 million. The ceremony had a 82 percent share in the U.K., almost double that of the previous high for an Olympic opening ceremony.

In the U.S., NBC’s coverage ranked as the most-watched for a Summer Games on record, with 40.7 million average viewers. This tops the Atlanta Games viewership and is nearly 6 million more viewers than the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 15 million more than the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Live coverage of the opening ceremony by Canada’s Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium broke records as the most-watched Summer Olympic Games broadcast on record in the country. An average of 6.4 million Canadians tuned in, making it the second most-watched opening ceremony on record in Canada, behind Vancouver 2012.