An IOC report says preliminary results indicate that the XVIII Olympic Winter Games in Nagano, Japan, were broadcast in more countries than ever before and that the global cumulative audience is likely to equal Lillehammer's record level of 10.7 billion cumulative viewers.
This is despite challenging time zone differences for the lead North American and European markets and event scheduling difficulties experienced as a result of bad weather.
Record audience levels in Asia-Pacific and in other regions where the Games were broadcast extensively for the first time, made up for decreases in some United States and European figures. Japan, China, Korea, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico, Canada and even some European markets such as Eurosport and Spain are among many where record coverage and audience levels were set.
The IOC says that in the United States, ratings were off from the exceptionally high levels achieved in Lillehammer, although CBS did achieve their highest-rated sports programme of the past year with Women's figure skating. Every day for 17 days, the Olympic Games broadcast on CBS was the highest-rated programme in the United States. 184 million Americans watched the Nagano Games (compared to 204 million for Lillehammer and 110 million Americans for the 1998 Super Bowl.)
