Enthusiasm for the Games was also exceptionally high in the US, where over 190 million Americans watched Olympic coverage on NBC Universal, making Vancouver 2010 the second most-watched Winter Games ever, surpassing Salt Lake City 2002 and ranking only behind the 1994 Lillehammer Games.The success of the American team helped drive ratings, with 29.4 million viewers - the highest sportsaudience of the Games - tuning in to watch Shaun White, Lindsey Vonn and Shani Davis all claim goldon a memorable day for the USA. The primetime coverage even managed to end American Idol's six-year unbeaten streak at the top of the country's TV ratings, attracting 12 million more viewers when the two shows went head-to-head. NBC's website also attracted a record number of visitors, with 46 million unique users logging on toNBCOlympics.com during the Games - an increase of almost 33 million users compared with the TurinGames in 2006. In total, the site attracted 710 million page views - more than double the total duringthe 2006 Winter Games - and served more than 45 million video streams, an increase of almost 37million compared with Turin four years ago. NBC's mobile platform also attracted a record number ofusers, serving 87.1 million page views - 52 million more than during Beijing 2008 - and providing twomillion mobile video streams, which equates to a six-fold increase on the Beijing Games.EuropeExcitement for Vancouver 2010 was evident across Europe, with high viewer figures across thecontinent and many broadcasters attracting audience shares in excess of 50%, even during primetime. In Austria, alpine skiing proved to be the most popular sport, attracting the three highest Olympicaudiences of the Games. Austrian viewers were particularly interested in the downhill events, with 1.3 million viewers tuning in to both the men's event and the women's event, where Elisabeth Goerglclaimed a bronze medal.German viewers, meanwhile, were captivated by the biathlon coverage, which attracted the country'sthree highest Olympic audiences during the Games. The viewing figures peaked at 10 million for thewomen's 4x6km relay - in which Germany won the bronze medal - accounting for almost 30% oftelevision viewers at that time. The Olympic coverage proved even more popular with German viewersthan the coverage of Bayern Munich's Champions League clash with Fiorentina, with the women'sdownhill attracting almost 40% more viewers than the football match.Chapter Three / BROADCASTING35