Viewing figures for the first four days of the Games peaked in the US on Sunday with 107.3 million viewers tuning in to watch Michael Phelps win his second gold of the games during the 4x100 men’s relay.
NBC said that viewing figures were boosted by on-demand, web and mobile content. The broadcaster reports that the number of unique users to its website increased from 4.2 million on August 8, the first day of the games, to 7.8 million on August 11, with 1.7 million downloads of the final 4x100 relay final.
Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal, said the ratings are well ahead of the Athens games in 2004 and confirmed that the 2008 Beijing Olympics are the most viewed ever, with 114 million US viewers compared with 110 million for Athens.
On top of television coverage, NBC is offering an unprecedented 2,200 hours of live Olympic webcasts and 700 hours of additional, exclusive content distributed through cable television.
