NBC: 219.4M tune in to Olympics coverage

NEW YORK, Aug. 14 (UPI) -- About 219.4 million Americans watched NBC's coverage of the 2012 London Olympics, making it the most-watched event in U.S. television history, the network said.

"The London Olympics was a wonderful 17 days for NBCUniversal, exceeding all our expectations in viewership, digital consumption and revenue," Steve Burke, chief executive officer of NBCUniversal, said in a statement Monday.

"Every part of our company contributed to our success, once again showing how effective we can be when we all get together to support a large project. This was the first Olympic Games for Comcast and the new NBCUniversal, and the first in history in which every minute of every event was available live. We are proud to have been part of the last two weeks, and we couldn't have asked for a better start to our long run of Olympic Games through 2020."

The number of viewers this year surpassed the 215 million who tuned in to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, NBC said, adding its prime time Olympic coverage averaged 31.1 million viewers.

The closing ceremony was seen by 31 million people.