China Olympics TV Ratings Jackpot
History Is Made By The Biggest Television Audience of All Time
When a television program gets high ratings it is compared to the Superbowl or the last episode of MASH. However, neither of these events compare to the audience that tuned in to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.
China Olympics Ratings
Reuters reports that "the final day of the Games drew nearly all of China's 1.3 billion people to their televisions." International Olympics Committee president Jacques Rogge said the Beijing Olympics were "likely to be the most widely watched Games in Olympic history. We had more broadcast coverage to more people, in more places than ever."
Highest Ratings Ever
The population of the United States is just over 300 million. That means if every American watched the same television program, it would still be fewer than a quarter of the people who watched the Beijing Olympics in China alone. Since the Olympics were watched all over the world, the number was actually much higher. The Beijing Olympics turned out to be a tremendous public relations success for China.
Olympics TV Ratings
This is quite an accomplishment considering the long list of controversial issues China had to deal with leading up to the Beijing Olympics. Protests threatened to derail China's campaign for world acceptance. The television ratings prove that there was never a significant boycott.
Television Ratings History
The result for China will likely be a significant economic boost. Not only did China get a 17 day public relations commercial around the world, it also validated its burgeoning television industry. Investors from all over the world are now eager to invest in the Chinese television market. The audience is vast and largely new to commercial television. The potential profits selling to this market are staggering.
Biggest Television Audience
The New York Times reports "The broadcast was the first in a series of Olympic bonanzas for China Central Television, or CCTV, one of the chief propaganda arms of the Chinese state and perhaps also a new global media titan. Analysts say global corporations seeking a foothold in this potentially huge market have begun to notice CCTV, whose audience is vastly larger than every major television network in the United States and Europe combined."
All Time Ratings Leader
That suggests that future TV viewing records will also come primarily from China. Some of their more popular television programs get 500 million viewers on a regular basis. That's 200 million more people than the population of the United States. There are 1.3 billion people watching television in China and almost none of them bother to watch the Superbowl.
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