NBC's Beijing Gamble Pays Off With Record Olympic Audiences

NEW YORK - NBC's coverage of the Beijing Games became the most-watched television event in U.S. history, the network said — a vindication of its billion-dollar bet on the Olympics and its experiments in online streaming.

More than 210 million Americans watched at least some of the 17-day Games across NBC's networks, surpassing the 1996 Atlanta Games. Michael Phelps' record eighth gold medal race drew one of the largest audiences of the year.

Equally notable to network executives was the digital performance: NBCOlympics.com streamed more than 2,200 hours of live competition, drawing 75 million video streams — yet the online coverage appeared to feed, not cannibalize, the prime-time audience.

"The fear was that streaming would erode the broadcast," a network research chief said. "It did the opposite. People sampled during the day and gathered around the TV at night."

The Games were a rare ratings colossus in an era of audience fragmentation, and a morale boost for a network that has struggled in prime time. Advertisers who paid premium rates called it money well spent.

Attention now shifts to the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver — and to whether the International Olympic Committee will let future host cities replicate Beijing's telegenic but tightly controlled spectacle.

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Associated Press writers contributed to this report.

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