The Sochi Winter Olympic Games are being viewed on more than 464 channels around the world, with more than 42,000 hours of games being broadcast worldwide. But how different are the games viewed in different countries?
In Sweden more than a million of winter sports-crazy Sweden's 9.5 million citizens watch popular disciplines like cross-country live during working hours, says Wayne Seretis, TV3 spokesman, according to the Associated Press.
"This is Sweden's Olympic games, full stop," commentator Per Forsberg said on TV3 after Stina Nilsson sprinted past German Denise Herrmann on Wednesday for a bronze medal in cross-country skiing, an event that barely attracted notice elsewhere, the AP reported.
During the weekends, 2.5 million people watched Swedish men win gold in a cross-country relay, according to the AP. Smaller numbers of viewers watch prime-time roundups.
On "super Wednesday," TV3 focused on the Nordic country's win over Slovenia in men's hockey, the medals in cross-country sprints and the Swedish women qualifying for the curling finals, the AP reported.
Swedish commentators congratulated Finland for a "well-deserved" gold in the men's team sprint but earlier in the games, Swedish commentators took pleasure in the failures of Norway, particularly the explanation that the skiers were hobbled by bad wax, according to the AP.
In Russia on Wednesday it a bad day for the host country, the AP reported. Russia's men's hockey team was shown live at 4:30 p.m. Moscow time being eliminated from medal contention by Finland.
During the prime-time figure skating, announcer Ilya Averbukh said "bravo, bravo" following the performance by South Korea's Yuna Kim, the defending gold medalist, according to the AP. Irina Slutskaya, an Olympic medalist in 2002 and 2006, saluted American Gracie Gold.
"She fought to the end," Slutskaya said, according to the AP.
In Japan, six hours ahead of Sochi, many of the high-profile events are shown live overnight, although NHK rebroadcasts much of it the next day, the AP reported. The Japanese broadcasters rely heavily on former athletes for Olympic coverage, with former figure skater Shizuka Arakawa, former tennis star Shuzo Matsuoka and Nordic combined gold medalist Kenji Ogiwara all in Russia.
Japan's national broadcaster televised the men's and women's giant slalom final live in primetime on Wednesday, along with the women's 5,000-meter speed skating, the AP reported.
Canada's national obsession was evident Wednesday, when the prime-time telecast opened with 40 minutes on the men's hockey team's tense 2-1 victory over Latvia to reach the gold medal game, even though many Canadians stopped work to watch it live during the day, according to the AP.
"What a game," the CBC's play-by-play man Jim Hughson said, the AP reported. "It wasn't supposed to be this hard."
In the United States, the focus was on the bobsled finals was different across Canada's southern border, where the silver medal-winning U.S. duo of Elana Meyers and Lauryn Williams's fall from first place coming in to Wednesday was detailed in slow motion focus, according to the AP.
NBC airs some live competition on TV during the day in U.S. time, and all of it online, the AP reported. The vast majority of U.S. viewers tune in during prime time for a curated selection of taped highlights.
Besides the bobsled and figure skating competition, Wednesday's focus was on the giant slalom ski race won by Ligety, according to the AP. Host Bob Costas interviewed Ligety as the night was winding to an end.
NBC often ends each broadcast with the medal ceremony for decorated U.S. athletes, the AP reported. On Wednesday, it was snowboarder David Wise's turn to stand as "The Star-Spangled Banner" played.
