The opening ceremonies for the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta drew the largest U.S. television audience (39.7 million viewers) of any recent Summer Games.
In comparison, the broadcast of the most recent Summer Olympics opening ceremonies — Athens, 2004 — drew 25.3 million U.S. viewers.

DATE / TIME
YEAR / LOCATION
NETWORK
VIEWERS (P2+)

25 July / 8pm – 12am
1992 / Barcelona
NBC
21,609,000

19 July / 8pm – 12:45am
1996 / Atlanta
NBC
39,767,000

15 Sept. / 8pm – 11:36pm
2000 / Sydney
NBC
27,275,000

13 Aug. / 8pm – 11:49pm
2004 / Athens
NBC
25,384,000

Source: The Nielsen Company

The U.S. audiences for three key Olympics related websites, NBColympics.com, Olympic.org, and USolympicteam.com, grew by significant percentages from the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Games to the 2006 winter Games in Italy, according to Nielsen Online.
Olympic.org experienced the largest growth of the three sites; its unique audience (both home and work) in the U.S. grew from 330,000 in 2002 to 1.39 million  in 2006 — a 323% increase.
USolympicteam.com’s unique home and work audience in the U.S. grew from 508,000 during the 2002 Games to 716,000 in 2006 — a 41% increase.
Although NBColympics.com easily …

Olympics advertising featuring Chinese athletes like basketball player Yao Ming and hurdler Liu Xiang appear to be paying off for advertisers.
In a Nielsen survey of Chinese consumers conducted in May 2008, Olympics ads featuring celebrity endorsements by Chinese athletes were among the most recalled. 
Liu Xiang’s Coca-Cola ads were most frequently recalled by consumers — 62% remembered them, according to Nielsen.  Yao Ming’s China Unicom and Coca-Cola ads also proved memorable — 48% recalled them.  Meanwhile, diver Guo Jing Jing’s Coca-Cola ads were recalled by 36% of those surveyed.
But despite their …

For perhaps the first time in Olympics history, a significant number of viewers will track the Games’ results via their mobile phones. 
American consumers are particularly likely to view Olympics content on their phones, a recent survey by Nielsen Mobile found. 
Consumers in the UK and Spain also showed strong interest in watching the Beijing Games and receiving Olympics results from their mobile phones, according to Nielsen Mobile.  Those in the UK said they plan to read Olympics-related Web articles and monitor the medal count via their phones, while Spanish consumers reported they will most likely …

Nielsen has tracked television ratings for all summer and winter Olympic Games broadcasts since 1968.  
Ratings data for Olympic Games telecasts from 1968 to 2006 – including ratings for opening and closing ceremonies and average ratings for each Olympics – are available below:
 -Average Ratings: all Summer and Winter Olympics telecasts, broken out by daypart (3.36MB)
-Ratings for Opening and Closing Ceremonies: Summer Olympics
-Ratings for Opening and Closing Ceremonies: Winter Olympics

Television viewing in the U.S. spiked by 17% during the Atlanta Summer Olympic Games in 1996, while TV viewing in Australia during the 2000 Sydney Summer Games jumped by 39%, according to a recent Nielsen report analyzing media trends from past Olympics.
Nielsen’s report also found that advertising spending in Olympic host countries grew significantly in both the U.S. and Greece in the years following the 1996 and 2004 Olympics. 
Only Australia saw declines in ad spending following the 2000 summer Games.  Those decreases can be attributed to general cutbacks in spending in the …

The New York Times reported Monday that NBC Universal may earn more than $1 billion in TV and online advertising sales for the Beijing Olympics.
The story noted that the largest TV advertisers have not changed in recent Olympics.  Six companies, including official sponsors like Coca-Cola and Visa, were among the top 10 spenders in both 2000 and 2004, according to data from Nielsen Monitor-Plus.
View the top 20 TV advertisers and advertising categories for the 2000 and 2004 Olympics.