Beijing expects four billion TV viewers for '08 Games

A night view of the Shenyang Olympic Sports Centre Stadium, one of the five football venues of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, in Shenyang, China May 21, 2007 file photo. Some four billion people are expected to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics on television, a billion more than the Athens Games in 2004, state media reported on Wednesday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Some four billion people are expected to watch the 2008 Beijing Olympics on television, a billion more than the Athens Games in 2004, state media reported on Wednesday.

"The figure will be one billion more than that of the 2004 Athens Olympics, and I believe we can achieve that goal," Xinhua news agency quoted Ma Guoli, Chief Operation Officer of Beijing Olympics Dissemination Corporation Ltd, as saying.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) received about $2.5 billion for the broadcasting rights for the Turin 2006 Winter Games and the Beijing Summer Olympics.

In March, the IOC issued a tender for mainland China for the sale of Internet and mobile phone platform rights for next August's Games, after already selling over-the-air TV rights to state broadcaster CCTV.

China in January said it would launch two satellites this year dedicated to broadcasting Olympic television and radio coverage.