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MUMBAI:
The inaugural ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics
could become the first sporting event to attract a record
total live audience of one billion, a report put out by Initiative
Sports Futures, an independent research firm with no ties
to the Olympics, avers.
The
report says that the actual number of people watching sporting
events live is slowly growing, despite audiences for international
events, like the Olympics, fluctuating widely.
While
other sports broadcasts have claimed audiences of more than
one billion, these numbers are often exaggerated. To play
up the popularity of an event for would-be sponsors, audience
numbers are sometimes inflated by including viewers who tune
in to highlight shows, said Initiative Sports Futures head
of analytics Kevin Alavy.
Alavy
also added that only a handful of sporting competitions truly
attract global audiences. The final match of one of the biggest
international sporting events last year, the Rugby World Cup,
for example, drew only 33 million viewers globally.
The
Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics are scheduled to kick off on
8 August.
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