One Billion Audience for Beijing 2008

The opening ceremony of the Summer Olympics in Beijing in August is set to be the first sporting event to attract a record total live audience of one billion, according to a report by global media communications agency Initiative Sports Futures.

Initiative Sports Futures (ISF) said the actual number of people watching sporting events live is slowly growing, despite audiences for more international events, like the Olympics, fluctuating widely.

Kevin Alavy, ISF's Head of Analytics added that only a handful of elite competitions truly attract global audiences. The final match of one of the biggest international sporting events last year, the Rugby World Cup, for example, drew only 33 million viewers globally, according to ISF.