London 2012 prove ratings gold for BBC
Team GB’s superb performance in the London 2012 Olympic Games on Saturday 4th August translated into huge ratings for the BBC.
While not on the same scale as the opening ceremony (26.9m), a massive 17.1 million tuned in to see Mo Farah win the Men’s 10,000 Gold Medal. No less impressive was the 16m for Jessica Ennis’ stunning performance in the women’s heptathlon and the 15.6m who saw Greg Rutherford’s surprise success in the men’s long jump final. No surprise then that BBC Olympics chief Roger Mosey tweeted about the "stunning viewing figures for last night's amazing athletics".
BBC figures show that huge numbers of people are also watching the coverage online, with its website recording a peak audience of 8 million. The website has seen 29m requests for its interactive video streams with Bradley Wiggins's win in the cycling being the single most popular – with 729,000 requests. On TV, cycling events have been generating excellent audiences in the range of 5-9 million.
