LOS ANGELES - The number of US audience watching 2012 London Olympics opening ceremony televised by the National Broadcasting Corporation on Friday night reached a record high of 40.7 million.
According to statistics released by Nielsen Saturday, the viewership represented the largest US television audience for any Summer or Winter Olympics openers, or the largest since 1987 when the tracking firm began to gather individual viewership figures.
"The audience number for the London opening ceremony is a great early sign that our strategy of driving people to watch NBC in prime time is working," NBC Sports Group chairman Mark Lazarus said.
The feat eclipsed two previous records - 39.77 million for the opening ceremony of 1996 Atlanta Games and 34.9 million who watched the Chinese culture-rich event during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Viewership at Friday night averaged a 21 rating, according to Nielsen, a figure less exciting than that for the 1984 Los Angeles Games, which averaged 23.9. The opening ceremony for the 1996 Atlanta Games averaged a 23.6 rating.
For the Friday night's streaming, the highest rating was created in San Diego, California, averaging 27.8, followed by Washington, DC and West Palm Beach, Florida which tied with 26.8, according to the ratings tracking firm.
The NBC, which paid $1.18 billion for the telecast rights, has offered to stream a total of 5,535 hours of coverage of the event. The broadcaster has televised each Summer Olympics since 1988.
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