For Rio 2016, insidethegames can reveal the United States has snatched this particular crown.

The $1.226 billion (£760 million/€970 million) paid by the owners of NBC for the US broadcasting rights to Rio 2016 equates to about $3.80 (£2.35/€3.01) per US citizen.

This comfortably outstrips the fee per inhabitant of Australia to be paid by the Seven Network under one of the last Rio 2016-related broadcasting deals to be concluded.

According to original research covering the full list of Rio 2016 broadcasting deals, conducted by insidethegames, Australians, hosts of the 2000 Summer Games, are now the second-most valuable potential Summer Olympic viewers, ahead of the Italians and the Japanese.

There is a huge spread in viewer value across the globe ©Getty Images



Their demotion appears to underline how much the Australian market for Olympic content has come off the boil since Channel Nine and pay-television operator Foxtel jointly paid AUD$122 million (£67 million/$115 million/€84 million) for Australian rights to Vancouver 2010 and London 2012.

Rio 2016 Olympic viewer valuations showed strong increases compared with London 2012 in Europe, Brazil/Latin America and China.

There remains a huge spread from country/region to region, however, with potential viewers across vast tracts of the globe valued, on this basis, at less than 10 US cents (£0.06/€0.08) per person.

The full analysis can be viewed here.

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