Provisional data published by TNS Gallup Media shows that around half of all TV viewers in Russia aged 18+ watched the vote that secured Sochi the right to host the 2014 Winter Olympics. The vote, which took place in Guatemala when it was the middle of the night in Russia, saw Channel One’s audience alone peak at 37.2% in Moscow, as opposed to the usual rating of 2.4%, and 40.3% (compared to 1.1%) in Russia as a whole.
