London 2012 international digest – Day 11

The London Olympics are a smash with television audiences in the United States and host nation Great Britain, according to the latest figures from the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

The opening ceremony was watched by a record audience of nearly 41m on American broadcaster NBC with an estimated 900m viewers across the globe.

The US teenage audience also climbed to 29% compared with Beijing, with a 54% increase in the number of girls watching. The IOC also claimed that more teenage girls were watching the Olympics than musical TV hit Glee.

In Britain, viewing figures for the opening ceremony peaked at 27m, more than watched last year’s royal wedding.

The most watched individual Olympic event on British TV so far was the men’s 100m final on Sunday, which just pipped the last most-watched Olympic event, ice dancers Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean’s gold medal at the 1984 Winter Olympics.