NBC is averaging a 17.8/31 national rating through Tuesday night for its prime-time Olympic coverage, up 15.6 percent from a 15.4/27 for the same period during the 2004 Athens Games. The rating marks the best prime-time rating through the first five nights of a non-U.S. Summer Olympics since a 18.2/34 for the 1992 Barcelona Games. NBC earned a 19.9 national rating and 82 million viewers for Tuesday night's prime-time coverage, marking the network's highest-rated and most-viewed night during the Games so far. Meanwhile, NBCOlympics.com has seen 17.7 million video streams, 21.1 million unique users and 373.9 million page views through five days.

NBC Universal yesterday issued its first TAMi (Total Audience Measurement Index) — a measurement across all NBC Universal platforms for the Beijing Games. For example, TV viewership for the first day of coverage on Aug. 8 accounted for 70.1 million viewers, or 94 percent of all those watching Olympic coverage, whereas 4.2 million viewers, or 5.7 percent of the total Olympic viewing audience, consumed their coverage via online.

Gymnastics helped NBC score viewers in its post-prime-time slot on Tuesday.

On Day Four (Aug. 11), 94.8 million viewers watched Olympic coverage on TV, but that figure fell from Day One to account for an overall percentage of 92.0 percent. Online viewership was 7.8 million for the same day, rising to account for 7.6 percent of total Olympic viewership.

NBCU President and CEO Jeff Zucker said, “Our multi-platform Olympic strategy is a success, but this record-breaking Olympic performance is proving that network television is more alive than ever.”

NBCU President of Research Alan Wurtzel said: “When we look at the first few days of TAMi data, it's clear that while the power of broadcast television remains unmatched, consumers are seeking out and taking advantage of all the different platforms offering Olympic coverage, creating a new kind of viewing experience."

Wurtzel added NBCU research had shown 10 percent of viewers "had consumed coverage from both TV and online" for the Olympics to date. However, he said the TAMi figure "isn’t meant to be used as a currency,” as it involves an “apples-to-oranges” comparison.

The following is a TAMi breakdown for the first four days of the Olympics.

NOTES: TV VOD reported on a rolling basis. * = uniques. ** = Wireless application protocol (WAP) uniques and mobile VOD uniques.