MOSCOW, February 10. /ITAR-TASS/. More than one third of Russia’s population, or 36.5 million people, were watching an opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics in the southern Russian city of Sochi on Russian TV Channel One and TV channels Rossiya-1 and Rossiya-2, the press service of the All-Russia State Television and Radio Broadcasting Company (VGTRK) reported on Monday with the reference to results of a survey conducted by one of the largest Russian market research companies TNS Russia.

The press service of the market research holding noted that this was one of largest audiences for the whole history of media surveys in Russia. Total share of audience at the Olympics opening ceremony on two TV channels has made 68.9% with a 32.5% rating (audience over four years), VGTRK representatives said. Thirty-six percent of Russians (24.5 million people) were watching the Olympic opening ceremony on TV channel Rossiya-1.

For first four days of the Olympics (on February 6-9) 72.5% of Muscovites (9.9 million people) were watching sport broadcasts and programs from Sochi on TV channels Rossiya-1, Rossiya-2 and Sport-1.

“The interest to special TV channel Sport-1 is particularly demonstrative, as daily audience in Moscow has made around 320,000 TV viewers at the beginning of the year and has amounted to more than one million TV viewers daily for first four days of the Olympics,” the VGTRK press service reported.

The market research holding also noted that TV audience estimates also surpassed all expectations, as the number of visits for watching the opening ceremony at website Sportbox.ru (the VGTRK Internet resource) has reached 612,000 people, 200,000 viewers were watching short cuts of best moments in the Olympic opening ceremony. As many as 900,000 viewers were watching the Olympic opening live on Rossiya-1 and on the websites Vesti.ru and Russia.tv on February 7.