Beijing  - The 2008 Olympics drew an estimated television audience of 4.7 billion over 17 days, setting a new viewing record for an Olympic Games, market research firm Nielsen said on Friday.

The estimated audience from August 8-17 surpassed the 3.9 billion viewers for the whole of the Athens games in 2004 and the 3.6 billion who watched the 2000 event in Sydney, the company said in a press release.

About 94 per cent of China's 1.3 billion people watched some of the televised Olympic coverage, while Olympic viewing also reached 94 per cent in South Korea and 93 per cent in Mexico, it said.

Nielsen said its estimates were based on data sourced across 37 markets by its own companies and partner firms.

In an earlier report, Nielsen estimated that almost one third of the world's population - a little over 2 billion - watched the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics.

It said the highest audience reach for the opening ceremony was in the Asia-Pacific, where more than five in 10 people tuned in, followed by Europe, where 30 per cent of the population watched, and North America, at 24 per cent. (dpa)