New media footage of the Olympics is expanding the audience for the Beijing 2008 Games rather than cannibalising television, NBC Universal argued on Wednesday as it produced the first results of its effort to measure viewing on different platforms.

Traffic to the broadcaster’s online video site surged from 4.2m unique users for Friday’s opening ceremony to 7.8m by Monday, equating to almost 8 per cent of the total US audience for the Olympics, which NBCU paid almost $1bn to cover.