London Olympics 2012 Boost NBC Ratings to 10-Year High

NBC's ratings reached a 10-year high last week and the highest for any network since 2008, thanks to its coverage of the London Olympic Games 2012.

The network, which acquired exclusive coverage of the Olympics, averaged 32.2 million viewers during the week of July 30- August 5, according to Nielsen Media Research. 

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NBC said that figure is it's best since a week of coverage of the Olympic Games in Salt Lake City in 2002 when it averaged 32.8 million viewers.

With an average of 32.2 million viewers, NBC also had the highest viewership for any network since a week of coverage of the Super Bowl in 2008 when Fox took 33.6 million viewers.

NBC's figures are huge compared to the other networks. CBS averaged 4.2 million viewers, ABC 2.8 million, Fox 2.2 million and CW 0.6 million the same July 30-Aug 5 week.

NBC reportedly paid $1.2 billion for the U.S. rights to air the London Games, according to Time magazine. It paid $900 million for the rights to air the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008.

Its coverage of the Olympics has received plenty of criticism after the network held back television coverage of high-profile events for prime time.

However most viewers rate their coverage as good.

On Monday, the Pew Research Center for The People & The Press issued a poll in which 47% of the viewers rated NBC's coverage of the London Olymics as "Good."

According to the poll, 29% of the viewers thought the coverage was "excellent", 13% "fair" and 5 percent "poor" while 6% refused to respond.