More People Using Mobile Devices to Keep Up with the Winter Olympics
By David Sims
February 25, 2010
(OLYMPICS TECHNOLOGY)
If you're keeping up with the Winter Olympics the odds are increasing that you're doing so on your mobile phone or the Internet.
Reuters (News - Alert) cites Timo Lumme, head of TV and marketing for the International Olympic Committee, as saying 'non-traditional media' had already matched the 20,000 hours from traditional broadcasters so far these Games, in Reuters' words, 'contributing to a total audience he expects to reach 3.5 billion -- or half the world's population.'
Lumme told a news conference that 'we now have the same amount of hours covered globally on digital media -- Internet, mobile -- as we have on the old media broadcasting, and a quarter of that is mobile.'
'The Vancouver Olympics has established that NBC has no interest in maximizing viewer interest in the games, or in minimizing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars it says it will suffer from covering the event,' writes industry observer Scott Bradner.
NBC paid a record $2.2 billion for U.S. broadcast rights to the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics, Reuters said. Network officials confirm that yes, they'll lose money on the Winter Games, which isn't terribly surprising, seeing as how criticism of the coverage is the most shrill we've heard of any Olympics coverage.
Hey when you don't show the marquee events such as downhill skiinglive, you deserve to lose your shirt. And your shorts. And your job.
Henry Blodget wrote, incredulously, 'As of 2:15 ET, the Men's Downhill is underway in Vancouver, as NBC's web site, NBCOlympics.com proudly proclaims. But there's no live coverage. Not on NBC's web site, and not on NBC's TV networks, not anywhere NBC controls.'
'NBC's Olympics coverage is vile,' wrote our angry Facebook (News - Alert) friend. 'The women's downhill is on NOW, but there is apparently no way to watch it. No TV coverage, no live coverage on the NBC Web site. Disgusting.'
Evidently NBC wasn't aware until after the Games started that there's this new thing called the Internet, where results are actually posted – if you can believe this – when they happen, without even waiting for NBC's broadcast schedule! Imagine!
Reuters (News - Alert) cites Timo Lumme, head of TV and marketing for the International Olympic Committee, as saying 'non-traditional media' had already matched the 20,000 hours from traditional broadcasters so far these Games, in Reuters' words, 'contributing to a total audience he expects to reach 3.5 billion -- or half the world's population.'
Lumme told a news conference that 'we now have the same amount of hours covered globally on digital media -- Internet, mobile -- as we have on the old media broadcasting, and a quarter of that is mobile.'
'The Vancouver Olympics has established that NBC has no interest in maximizing viewer interest in the games, or in minimizing the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars it says it will suffer from covering the event,' writes industry observer Scott Bradner.
NBC paid a record $2.2 billion for U.S. broadcast rights to the Beijing and Vancouver Olympics, Reuters said. Network officials confirm that yes, they'll lose money on the Winter Games, which isn't terribly surprising, seeing as how criticism of the coverage is the most shrill we've heard of any Olympics coverage.
Hey when you don't show the marquee events such as downhill skiinglive, you deserve to lose your shirt. And your shorts. And your job.
Henry Blodget wrote, incredulously, 'As of 2:15 ET, the Men's Downhill is underway in Vancouver, as NBC's web site, NBCOlympics.com proudly proclaims. But there's no live coverage. Not on NBC's web site, and not on NBC's TV networks, not anywhere NBC controls.'
'NBC's Olympics coverage is vile,' wrote our angry Facebook (News - Alert) friend. 'The women's downhill is on NOW, but there is apparently no way to watch it. No TV coverage, no live coverage on the NBC Web site. Disgusting.'
Evidently NBC wasn't aware until after the Games started that there's this new thing called the Internet, where results are actually posted – if you can believe this – when they happen, without even waiting for NBC's broadcast schedule! Imagine!
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 Patrick Barnard
