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    BBC's Olympics website breaks records of its own with 29 million video requests

    BBC's Olympics website breaks records of its own with 29 million video requests

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    The BBC is providing viewership data after first week of London Olympics coverage.

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    BBC Olympics
    BBC Olympics

    After NBC revealed some impressive statistics following week one of the London Games, the BBC is providing some numbers of its own. Engagement has been a particular strong suit, with 17 million people having watched at least 15 minutes of footage from the company's 24 "Red Button" livestreams. In total, the BBC has seen 29 million requests for Olympics video content.

    The company is also breaking previous web traffic records, citing a total of 18 million unique browser visits during the first week of coverage. Daily traffic peaks have crossed nearly 8 million in the UK and 10.4 million globally compared to previous milestones of 5.7m (UK) and 7.4 (Global). Whereas Michael Phelps' unprecedented 19th medal win was the most popular clip for NBC, BBC viewers gravitated toward the Men's Road Race involving Mark Cavendish — that event drew an audience of 1.3 million.

    People are also tuning in from more places: though PCs still hold the lead in platform usage, mobile devices have seen tremendous growth and account for 33 percent of unique browser visits thus far. Further, over 1.5 million users have downloaded the BBC Olympics app for iOS and Android. As such, the BBC is calling these 2012 Olympics "the multi-platform Games," a title that seems more than appropriate to us.