Drop in the audience numbers for Barack Obama speech

Almost 38 million Americans watched President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech live on television - about 5 million fewer than in 2011, according to TV ratings figures on Wednesday.

The Nielsen company said Obama's speech on Tuesday night, in which he defended his record while demanding higher taxes on the wealthy, was carried live on 14 networks, and was seen by 37.7 million TV viewers. Last year, the TV audience for the address was 42.7 million, while 48 million watched Obama deliver his first State of the Union speech in 2010.