No Live, No Problem. NBC Sees Record Audience for Olympics Opening Ceremony

http://sportsmediajournal.com/ NBC reports that an average of 40.7 million people tuned in to watch last night’s Opening Ceremony of the 2012 Summer Olympics, making it the most-watched opening ceremony ever in the United States. The viewership is nearly six million more than the 2008 Beijing Olympics (34.9 million) and 15 million more than the 2004 Athens Olympics (25.4 million), the last European Olympics. Despite complaints by some of NBC’s decision to tape-delay the Opening Ceremony instead of airing it live, the ratings for the Opening Ceremony earned a 21.0/37 national rating/share, the best for a non-U.S. Summer Olympics ever, and the second best for a non-U.S. Games (Summer or Winter) in 36 years – since Innsbruck in 1976 (23.2/37). “This audience number for the London Opening Ceremony is a great early sign that our strategy of driving people to watch NBC in primetime is working. We look forward to the next 16 nights of compelling Olympic competition.” said NBC Sport Group Chairman Mark Lazarus.