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ASIA & OCEANIAThere was huge interest in Rio 2016 in Japan, which will host the next edition of the Olympic Games in 2020. Viewers in Japan watched more coverage of Rio 2016 than they did for London 2012, and the three most watched programmes were all for women’s events.Live coverage of the women’s marathon, aired on TBS, attracted an audience of 27.8 million viewers – 22.6% of the potential TV audience in Japan and 38.1% of all those watching television at that time. This compares with TBS’s average audience share of 13.5%. TV Asahi also delivered an impressive audience of more than 17 million (22.6% share) for its live coverage of the women’s volleyball match between Japan and Korea – more than double the highest audience for the channel during London 2012 (which had received 7.66 million viewers for live judo coverage).High audiences were also recorded in China for Rio 2016 coverage, with the men’s badminton final between China’s Chen Long and Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei attracting more than 55 million viewers. This was the highest audience of Rio 2016 in China and was higher than the audience of any Olympic events from London 2012. The broadcast also earned CCTV5 an audience share of 14% – 10 times the channel’s average share (1.4%).Elsewhere in Asia, broadcasters in South Korea (KBS, SBS & MBC) aired more coverage of Rio 2016 than of any previous Olympic Games. A total of 1,495 hours was aired – compared with the previous high of 1,371 hours that was aired during London 2012. The largest audience achieved in South Korea during the Games was the 3.365 million viewers who tuned in to free-to-air channel KBS 2 to watch coverage of Inbee Park’s gold medal-winning performance in the women’s golf event. The average share of viewing for the three-hour-and-40-minute broadcast was 24.6% – more than double the average share of viewing for this channel (11.4%). 036 BROADCASTING