BBC Nets Big Numbers For Diving, Gymnastics Coverage

The biggest Olympics audience in Great Britain Monday came during the swimming finals and semifinals when 8.8 million viewers were tuned in during a five-minute peak, according to John Plunkett of the London GUARDIAN. Team GB's Tom Daley missing out on an Olympic Medal in the synchronized platform diving Monday "attracted a peak audience" of 7 million, while more than 5 million tuned in to to see the Team GB men's gymnastics team win Bronze. During the final two rounds of swimming, BBC1 had 8.2 million viewers while 600,000 tuned in on BBC Olympics 1. BBC1's coverage of Daley and diving partner Peter Waterfield had a five-minute peak of 6.4 million viewers just before 4pm London time. Another 600,000 tuned in on digital channel BBC Olympics 10. BBC1's afternoon Olympics program between 1:45pm and 4pm averaged 3.7 million viewers (36.9%), with an average of 4.8 million (35.6%) tuning in between 4pm and 6pm. The men's gymnastics team's historic Bronze Medal win had a five-minute peak of 5.4 million viewers across BBC, BBC HD and BBC Olympics 2 just after 7pm (GUARDIAN, 7/31).

DOWN UNDER: In Sydney, Michael Bodey reported that the Nine network recorded another 40% share as the London Games "continued to dominate viewing." The early evening London Live telecast averaged 1.82 million viewers, according to preliminary OzTAM ratings figures. Yet, the session on Nine and GEM "featured swimming heats and semifinals and the equestrian event." The later evening session, featuring the women’s basketball "thriller," averaged 1.51 million viewers. Nine had a 36.4% channel share (including the GEM simulcast in HD) and a 40% network share against Seven’s 17.2% channel share, ABC1’s 12.9% and Ten’s 11.6%. The exclusive broadcast rights are helping Nine News, which rose to 1.48 million viewers (THE AUSTRALIAN, 7/31).

JAPAN: The JIJI PRESS reported that the Opening Ceremony drew a rating of 24.9% in the Kanto region of Japan. Ratings peaked at 38.4% in Kanto "just after the lighting of the Olympic flame." Ratings in the Kansai region peaked at 34.4% "just before the flame was lit" (JIJI PRESS, 7/31).

GERMANY: DIGITALFERNSEHEN.de reported that ZDF's Olympics highlight show "ZDF Olympia kompakt" drew "Monday's top rating." A total of 6.64 million viewers or 23% tuned in at 8:25pm CEST. Even in the marketing relevant target age group of 14-49, the show attracted 2.4 million viewers or 22.1%. The men's field hockey game between Germany and Belgium attracted 3.63 million viewers or 20.7% at 10:30pm. In the marketing relevant target group the match-up gained 1.42 million viewers or 18.8%. An even better rating attained ZDF's badminton coverage at 11pm, which attracted 3.9 million viewers overall and 1.59 million in the target group. Those numbers translate into a market share of 21.9% and 20.7% respectively (DIGITALFERNSEHEN.de, 7/31).

FRANCE: NOUVELOBS.com reported that France 3's day broadcast of the Olympics "registered a record" 19.1% share. The audience grew even stronger in the night with the broadcaster getting a 25% share (NOUVELOBS.com, 7/31).

GOING ONLINE: RAPIDTVNEWS.com reported that BBC Online has "set new records" with coverage of the first two days of the London Games. The broadcaster has delivered 24 simultaneous live streams of coverage to "the biggest audience the sport website has ever seen." The viewing numbers "have been huge." There have been 1.7 million requests for the Opening Ceremony on the BBC iPlayer, with a single-day record of 925,000 on Saturday alone. The same day saw 7.8 million global browsers access bbc.co.uk/sport, 5.6 million of which were U.K. browsers, also "a global record." This was bettered Sunday with 8.3 million global browsers for bbc.co.uk/sport, with 6.1 million coming from U.K. browsers. The James Bond Escorts The Queen to the London Games Opening Ceremony clip has been viewed 640,000 times (RAPIDTVNEWS.com, 7/31).