Peak of 11 million see Olympics start

A peak of almost 11 million UK viewers saw the BBC's coverage of the opening ceremony for the 2004 Olympics in Athens on Friday.

The ceremony - which occupied all of BBC One's primetime schedule - averaged a hefty 8.6 million viewers from 6.35pm, equating to a 41.4% share of the TV audience.

The peak came just after 10pm, when 10.7 million (50.3%) were watching.

In the US, an even more impressive 56 million total viewers tuned in between 8pm and 12am for tape-delayed coverage on the NBC network.

The BBC is planning 250 hours of Games coverage on BBC One and BBC Two over the course of the sixteen days - with that figure rising to a record 1,200 hours when the all-day interactive service is taken into account.