NBC Viewers Setting Olympic Records Of Their Own
By: 
It's not just Michael Phelps setting records. More people are watching this year's Olympic games than ever before. NBCOlympics.comattracted four million unique users Saturday, the day after the opening ceremony kicked off the event, when 2.7 million unique users logged in.
NBC's site attracting the most viewers with 2,200 hours of live streaming competition. Yahoo's Olympics site attracted a solid 3.3 million users Saturday, without offering any live footage, while AOL snagged a million uniques.
These numbers are particularly huge in contrast to the last summer Olympic games. The Athens 2004 opening ceremony attracted only 7 million page views, compared to 70 million this past opening ceremony. Though it's tough to truly compare, because there in previous years there were virtually no events offered live, streaming online.
And then there's NBC's TV viewer ship which is also exceeding expectations. NBC's coverage of swimming, volleyball and gymnastics, Saturday night attracted 24.1 million viewers, the most viewers for a first night of the games since 1992. Sunday the numbers were even better- an average of 31.7 million viewers, nearly 6 million more than the same night four years earlier in Athens. NBC's average viewer ship for the first two days is 29.1 million, the best primetime viewer ship for a non-US Olympics in more than 30 years.
Its not just American viewers; over 60 percent of China's viewing audience tuned in, and nearly half the viewing audience in France and Italy tuned in.
The Olympics are helping NBC beat its competitors; the peacock is beating ABC, CBS and FOX by three to one. NBC is promoting its upcoming fall shows throughout its Olympic coverage, hoping all these eyeballs will stick around after the games end.
Questions? Comments? MediaMoney@cnbc.com
