BBC's Olympics Coverage Secured More Than A Third Of All Viewers

BBC1 took "more than a third of all TV viewing," while BBC3 overtook both Channel 4 and Channel 5 for the duration of the London Games, according to John Plunkett of the London GUARDIAN. BBC1 had a 36.2% share of viewing across the 17 days of the Games. That was "more than four times ITV1's average all-day share" of 8.3% (excluding ITV +1) during the course of the Games. The last time BBC1 was "regularly getting an audience share of this magnitude" was in '90. BBC3, which like BBC1 showed "almost blanket coverage of the Olympics," and doubled its transmission time to become a 24-hour channel for the Games, saw its all-day share rise to 4.8% across the 17 days. This compares with 1.7% in the previous three months. Another "ratings success" was the BBC's 24 dedicated Olympics channels, available to satellite and cable viewers, which collectively averaged a 5.1% audience share across the seven days to Aug. 5. The "most popular individually" was BBC Olympics 1, averaging 1.2% across that period (GUARDIAN, 8/15).