London 2012 Delivers Record Viewing Figures
The London 2012 Olympic Games delivered the biggest national television event since current measuring systems began, with a reported 51.9m (90% of the UK population) watching at least 15 minutes of coverage – according to BBC Sport.
24.2m (42% of the UK population) also watched at least 15 minutes of coverage on the BBC Red Button.
Sunday’s Closing Ceremony was watched by a peak audience of 26.3m and an average audience of 23.2m (82% share).
This compares to an Opening Ceremony peak audience of 27.3m and an average audience of 23.4m (84% share).
Danny Cohen, controller BBC One said: ‘It has been an absolute privilege to broadcast the London 2012 Olympics on BBC One. 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. We’ve had fantastic feedback about the quality of the BBC’s coverage and all the teams involved deserve huge thanks and praise.’
Top 10 viewing peaks (includes BBC One and BBC Red Button unless stated)
1) Opening Ceremony Friday 27 July 27.3m
2) Closing Ceremony Sunday 12 August 26.3m
3) Men’s 100m Final – Bolt wins gold Sunday 5 August 20.0m
4) Mo Farah wins 10000m gold Saturday 4 August 17.1m
5) Jess Ennis wins Heptathlon gold Saturday 4 August 16.3m
6) Tom Daley win’s diving bronze Saturday 11 August 15.9m (inc. BBC One/Three and BBC Red Button)
7) Greg Rutherford Long Jump gold Saturday 4 August 15.6m
8) Men’s 200m Final – Bolt win 2nd gold Thursday 9 August 15.4m
9) Mo Farah wins 5000m gold Saturday 11 August 12.9m
10) Sally Pearson win 110m hurdles gold Tuesday 7 August 12.1m
Biggest National TV events (since current measuring systems began)
90% London 2012 Olympic Games
81% World Cup 2002
69% Diamond Jubilee
61% Kate & William Royal Wedding
Meanwhile, the BBC delivered its most successful online event ever, attracting a record 55m global browsers to BBC Sport online throughout the course of the Games.
Eurosport also attracted an average of 27.5m different TV viewers every day since the beginning of the Olympic Games.
The Eurosport UK website broke the 2m visitors mark in a single day for the first time on 6th August.
