NBC Beefs Up Mobile for Vancouver Olympics
By David Sims
February 05, 2010
(OLYMPICS TECHNOLOGY)
After being 'blown away' by the amount of mobile Web traffic NBC Universal (News - Alert) received during the Beijing Olympics, NBC officials say the network is 'investing even more heavily in mobile for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics.'
Industry observer Tricia Duryee wrote that in the summer of 2008, the Olympics were considered one of the largest digital events to date, and NBC executives were 'stunned by the 6.5 million unique visitors coming to its mobile Web site during the games.' But with smartphone adoption and data consumption 'steadily increasing since, this Olympics could draw even bigger crowds to the mobile phone.'
Last month TMC's (News - Alert) Brendan Read wrote that 'medal-competing athletes and some of the estimated 1.8 million spectators in the stands, like my wife and I, at the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games will be seen by AT&T (News - Alert) subscribers on all channels: TV, PCs, and wireless devices. We’ll wave hello from the stands.'
An NBC spokesperson told Duryee that this year they’ve added 'two apps, a smart phone version of the NBC Olympics mobile site, and new social media features to its mobile offerings.' In addition, 'NBC said they have been able to attract advertisers to mobile -- not because it was part of a larger media TV or online buy, but because of the strong performance numbers from Beijing,' she reported.
For the Olympics, NBC has launched two apps, Duryee said: 'The NBC Olympics application is basically an extension of the site. It has news, results and video, but also social networking elements. For instance, users will be able to follow the Twitter feeds of athletes or share items with Facebook (News - Alert). It also uses technology from AT&T that allows you to chat with friends, publicly or privately.'
We wonder if they'll introduce an app for those of us winter sports fans who want to see something other than figure skating. We're resigned to the sort of coverage described so well by TMC's Grammar Queen Emeritus, Tracey Schelmetic, as '10 minutes of all other sports and three hours of figure skating.'
And for the mobile Web, NBC has added a new smart phone version to its mobile site, 'which will display well on phones with big screens, such as the iPhone, Android (News - Alert) phones, and some BlackBerry phones. Users will be able to personalize the site for their favorite sports, or their region with content from the local NBC affiliates.'
David Sims is a contributing editor for TMCnet. To read more of David’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.
Edited by Amy Tierney
