UK commercial broadcaster Channel 4 attracted an average of 7.6 million viewers and a 40-per-cent audience share for its coverage of the London 2012 Paralympic Games opening ceremony last night.
The Guardian newspaper said that the viewing figures for the show, which ran from 8pm to 12.20am, represented a fivefold increase on the channel’s normal audience for a Wednesday evening.
According to overnight figures from audience measurement company Barb, Channel 4 drew a 15-minute peak of 10.9 million viewers between 8.45pm and 9pm and a five-minute peak audience of 11.2 million during that period.
The broadcaster will show about 150 hours of live coverage from the Paralympics. In Germany, public-service broadcasters ARD and ZDF said it would provide 65 hours of coverage – more than doubling the 30 hours for the 2008 Beijing Paralympics.
“Few would have imagined the rapid development of the Paralympics on television broadcasts since the Games in Sydney in 2000,” ZDF editor Peter Kaadtmann said.