US network benefits from swim timings

The decision to move the Olympic swimming finals to morning sessions to accommodate American television audiences has paid off for US network NBC.

More than 28.7 million Americans tuned in to watch US swim superstar Michael Phelps - who is aiming to win eight gold medals at this Games - clinch his first at the first session of the finals which aired on Saturday night in the United States, according to Nielsen Media Research.

NBC controversially persuaded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to have the swimming finals changed in Beijing from the evening to mornings to suit its audience.

The east coast of the US is 12 hours behind Beijing, while the west coast is 15 hours behind, meaning that if the finals had stayed in the evening, they would have aired very early in the morning.

In Sydney 2000, Olympics NBC suffered disastrous ratings, partly due to the time difference.

The move has been blasted by Australian head coach Alan Thompson who believes the NBC should not have been able to "buy" an Olympic swim trial.

Overall, an average of 24.1 million people in the US watched the Saturday prime time coverage.

That was up from the corresponding night in Athens in 2004, which scored 19.8 million viewers.

Following from a huge opening ceremony audience, which averaged 34.2 million US viewers, to make it the biggest American television event since the Super Bowl, the Olympics are on track to become the most watched in history.

In Australia, the Seven Network is also claiming big wins despite the swimming finals airing in the early afternoon (AEST) and protests over its decision to drop the Olympics in favour of broadcasting a down table AFL match on Sunday.

Due to contractual agreements, Seven must broadcast an AFL game every Sunday.

Seven's website was bombarded with complaints on its "Fan's Forum" calling on others to boycott the broadcasters coverage over its decision to show the Adelaide versus Richmond match.

Seven defended the move, saying that complementary broadcaster SBS was airing events at the same time.

Across the whole of Sunday, an average national audience of almost two million viewers were tuned to Seven.

In prime time, there were nearly three million people watching, with the audience peaking at over four million.

Seven said that 13.5 million Australians have now watched all or part of Seven's coverage since the opening ceremony of the Games, up from figures in Athens.