Sochi Winter Games may receive 4.5 bln TV audiences: official

MOSCOW, Feb. 3 (Xinhua) -- Some 3.5 billion audiences will watch the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics via television, head of the organizing committee said Sunday.

The Games would see a 17 percent rise on the last Winter Olympics held in Vancouver in 2010, the RIA Novosti news agency quoted Dmitry Chernyshenko as saying.

"The official figure at the Vancouver Games was around three billion," Chernyshenko said, adding the committee had been observing the trend of rising TV audience in the last several years.

"So we can expect such figures (3.5 billion), taking ceremonies into account of course," said the official.

According to an earlier report from the committee, Russian government was expected to spend some 1.5 trillion rubles (50.2 billion U.S. dollars) preparing for the Games. Meanwhile, over 160,000 people have applied for the 28,000-post voluntary work.

The Sochi Games, the first Winter Olympic Games held in Russia, are to take place from Feb. 7 through 23, 2014.

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