The IOC said Wednesday that the global broadcast output for the Sochi Winter Olympics "is almost double that of Vancouver four years ago in terms of hours and channels," according to Karolos Grohmann of REUTERS. IOC Television & Marketing Services Managing Dir Timo Lumme said that "more than 102,000 hours were broadcast globally across 464 channels and digital platforms compared to 57,000 hours from 240 broadcasters in 2010." Lumme said, "The global broadcast has been bigger than for any previous Winter Games. Television is 42,000 hours on against 32,000 in Vancouver, and if you take the digital component it is 60,000 hours against 25,000 hours in Vancouver" (REUTERS, 2/19). Lumme: "In Russia, over three-quarters of the Russian people have watched some coverage of the Olympic Winter Games. In the U.S., over half of the U.S. population has been watching so far. In Canada, 90 percent of Canadians have watched some coverage and in Korea, two-thirds of Koreans have watched some coverage. In China 190 million people so far have watched at least 15 minutes of coverage" (XINHUA, 2/19).
