BEIJING TV viewers around the world are tuning into the Beijing Games in record numbers, and it's likely to fill the coffers of the International Olympic Committee like never before and ease pressure to tinker with the Olympic formula.

Chalk it up to the “Phelps effect.” Or interest in China's athletic prowess.

Those are among the reasons why viewers from Oklahoma City to Osaka, from Minneapolis to Moscow, have been tuning into their televisions and going onto the Internet.

“I can tell you that generally ratings are higher than for any Olympic Games before,” Timo Lumme, director of television and marketing services for the IOC, said Wednesday.

The Beijing Games have already become the most watched event in U.S. TV history, surpassing even the 1996 Atlanta Games and sweeping NBC into prime-time dominance. When swimmer Michael Phelps won his eighth gold medal Saturday, NBC drew more viewers than at any time since 1990.

To the delight of Olympics organizers, broadcasters are finding that, as they provide hundreds more hours of Olympics footage to feed streaming video for the Internet and even cell phone screens, it does not eat into TV viewership. Instead, people watch Olympics on television while at home, then watch it online while commuting or at work.

NBCOlympics.com, which provides online streaming of video, is receiving 30 times more video views now than during the Athens Games, Lumme said.

As a result, Olympics officials look forward to an expected sharp jump in revenue from broadcast and sponsorship fees for the 2014 winter games in Sochi, Russia, and the 2016 Summer Games in London. The bulk of broadcast rights for those two games will go out for bid next year.

It's little wonder that as billions of extra dollars look set to pour into the coffers of the Lausanne, Switzerland-based IOC, the organization is growing. From 150 employees a decade ago, it now has nearly 450. It is slowly shaking off its reputation as a rich white men's club, and sloughing its image as corruption-prone following a scandal in the late 1990s in which some IOC members took bribes in exchange for awarding the 2002 winter games to Salt Lake City.

But worries grew that the IOC was out of touch with youth sports, and ratings prior to the Beijing Games underscored that the average age of television viewers was rising.

To make the Olympics more relevant, a new sport was added to the 2008 Games – BMX cycling.

Baseball and softball have already been knocked out for the 2012 Games, and the IOC will decide next year whether to reinstate them for the 2016 Games or pick up one of five new sports: squash, karate, golf, rugby or roller skating.

Whether younger committee members push for sports such as skateboarding or surfing is yet to be seen. They want youthful appeal but also are cognizant of changing taste in sports, and the soaring ratings from the current games may dampen enthusiasm for experimentation.

“Who can say what's going to be appealing to youth eight years from now?” asked Ed Hula, editor of Around the Rings, a newsletter and Web site about the Olympics.

Other issues loom for the IOC. Beijing spent some $40 billion in new roads, subways, arenas and environmental projects, more than double what Athens spent for the 2004 Games. Future host cities wonder whether they can vault over the bar set by China.

“China just spent an unbelievable amount of money,” said David Wallechinsky, an Olympic historian. “There are worrisome issues with London. Unlike China, they will have a budget.”

Britain has budgeted about $19 billion for the 2012 Games, although Olympics Minister Tessa Jowell said earlier this month that the London Games “will be great fun” – a barb at the security restrictions that led some to call Beijing the “no-fun Games.”

The Beijing Games, though, have been hugely popular among Chinese. Some 842 million Chinese tuned in to at least part of the opening ceremonies Aug. 8. Another 102 million have watched live broadcasts of Olympic events online.

That partly explains why the outlook for the IOC is rosy. China got broadcast rights for a song – ponying up just a fraction of the $18.5 million paid by the Asian Broadcasting Union, a pan-regional group – for the 2008 Games. Yet Lumme said it probably reaped $400 million in advertising revenue from coverage.

When China negotiates again, he said, it will pay much more for broadcast rights.

Recently the IOC negotiated broadcast rights fees from Brazil for $60 million for the Sochi and London games, which Lumme said was “several multiples greater” than it paid for the 2006 Torino winter games and the Beijing games.

Lumme said the IOC reaped $2.6 billion for broadcast rights for the Torino and Beijing games, while the rights for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and the 2012 London Games “will be around $3.8 or $3.9 billion.”