Beijing Olympic Winter Games reach 4 mln Finnish TV viewers: national broadcaster

HELSINKI, Feb. 21 (Xinhua) -- The Finnish national broadcaster Yle's live television coverage of the Beijing Olympic Winter Games reached 3.9 million viewers in the country of 5.5 million people, the company said on Monday.

Between Feb. 4 and Feb. 20, Yle aired around 280 hours of Olympic coverage on TV. The men's cross-country skiing event on Feb. 13 had the largest average number of viewers -- 1,573,000.

Yle Areena, the company's streaming service, attracted a record audience during the Games. Yle's online services logged 38 million video views and streamed 6.1 million hours worth of audiovisual content. "The figures are an overwhelming record in winter sports. Also taking into account summer sports, many records were set by our online services," commented Joose Palonen, director of Yle Sports.

"The Beijing Games proved that Finns love winter sports. The Olympic Games captivated most Finns and brought them countless memorable moments," he said.