US broadcaster NBC's coverage of the first three days of the Beijing Olympic Games has proved to be immune from the overall trend of declining viewership for most television programs in recent years, according to figures released Tuesday.
The average number of viewers in the United States for the first three days of the Beijing Olympics reached 30.41 million, 26.7 percent more than the 24 million for the same period during the 2004 Athens Games, giving NBC a record margin in the weekly ratings race, said Nielsen Media Research.
NBC executives have attributed the increased viewership to live primetime coverage of such popular sports as swimming, gymnastics and beach volleyball and the network's "multi-platform" strategy of record cable and online coverage, which has drawn viewers to its primetime coverage.
Viewership for most forms of television programming in the United States has declined in recent years due to fierce competition for the public's attention from cable television, the Internet, video games and home video.
Nielsen figures showed that the three nights of NBC's Olympics coverage were actually the week's three most-watched programs, while the network's coverage of Friday's opening ceremony was the week's most-watched program.
The coverage of the opening ceremony, despite an almost 12-hour delay as the NBC withheld the show for the primetime, had an average viewership of 34.89 million, the most for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics opening ceremony and 37 percent more than the 25.38 million that watched the opening ceremony of the 2004 Athens Games.
The previous record was 27.3 million for NBC's coverage of the 2000 Summer Olympics from Sydney, Australia, while the largest U.S. television audience for a Summer Olympics opening ceremony was 39. 77 million for the 1996 Atlanta Games.
Television coverage of the Olympics in the United States traditionally draws larger audiences than those from outside the country because of a larger overall interest in the event and a smaller time difference that allows for live primetime coverage in the eastern and central time zones, where the bulk of the nation's population lives.
The viewership for NBC's coverage of the opening Ceremony of the Beijing Olympics was the largest for any primetime program since Fox Broadcasting's coverage of this year's Super Bowl game on Feb. 3, which averaged 97.45 million viewers, according to Nielsen.
Meanwhile, Sunday's Olympics coverage was second for the week with 32.26 million, while Saturday's averaged 24.08 million, the research firm said.
(Xinhua News Agency August 13, 2008)