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Rio Olympics: BBC pulls in highest audience for overseas Games

By Freddy Mayhew

BBC TV platforms reached an all-time high audience for an overseas Olympics with more than 45m tuning in to watch Rio 2016.

The audience reach surpassed previous record figures for the Olympics in Beijing, 2008, and Athens, 2004.

More than 11m watched Jason Kenny cycle to gold in the men’s Keirin on BBC One while 7.5m tuned in to see Olympian Mark Cavendish win silver in the Omnium, giving BBC Two its highest peak of the year so far.

BBC Four also achieved a peak of 3.4m during the games, making it the largest audience so far for the channel in 2016.

BBC Sport’s online coverage across the BBC Sport website, app, Red Button+ on connected TVs, BBC Sport 360 and BBC iPlayer reached a record 68.3m unique UK browsers throughout the Games, the biggest ever success for the digital service, beating the 39m set during London 2012.

Director of BBC Sport, Barbara Slater said: “It has been an incredible summer of sport with viewers tuning in to the BBC to catch all the action from the Euros, Wimbledon and Rio 2016.

“We are delighted that so many people came to the BBC for our Olympics coverage and joined us in celebrating the extraordinary success of Team GB.

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“We are incredibly proud to bring moments of national significance such as these magnificent Games to the widest possible audience.

“In the build-up and during the Olympics themselves we have seen every platform play to its unique strength to deliver a true 24/7 experience.

“As the audience figures show there has been an incredibly strong appetite for the Games and we’re delighted that we were able to bring all of the thrilling action to our audiences.”

Picture: Reuters

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