Olympics a TV ratings hit

DANNY Boyle's sublime opening ceremony for the London 2012 Olympic Games drew an Australian TV audience of almost 3 million viewers.

The dawn telecast - which featured the most impressive incorporation of pop music of any opening ceremony - was watched by an average of 2.41 million people in Australia.

The final half-hour of the telecast, in which the Olympic cauldron was lit, drew 2.84 million people.

A replay later in the day drew 1.81 million people.

The global Games audience is claimed by London organisers to be about 4 billion people, but would more likely be in the hundreds of millions.

Read more at Brisbane Times