NBC partnerships build new Olympic platforms

By Chris Marlowe

LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) – It’s unlikely that even
the most ardent Olympics fan can sit at home to watch all 418
hours of NBC’s coverage from Turin, Italy. The network,
therefore, pumped up its online presence and entered alliances
with Google, ESPN.com, Apple, TV Guide, MobiTV, Zingy and other
companies to extend its reach far beyond the television set.

“We know that Americans are consuming their media across
different platforms,” NBC Olympics president Gary Zenkel said.
“Although nothing will duplicate the shared experience of
watching a big event like the Olympics on television, the
reality is that people are on the go and at their desks. Our
objective was to create deep and compelling and rich offerings
of Olympic coverage on these mobile applications — and I’m
including the Internet with that.”

The network worked with Internet Broadcasting to create the
official online home NBCOlympics.com, which was designed to
provide easy access to individualized television listings
across the NBC networks, news updates, sponsored activities and
more.

“People want to keep up with what’s happening, but more
than anything else we wanted to showcase the multimedia content
we have access to and address the huge appetite audiences are
demonstrating for accessing video content on the Internet,”
Zenkel said.

ONLINE EXTRAS

All of the runs and routines of the top five competitors in
each sport, for example, can be viewed on the site. There also
are interviews and other material, some of which has been
broadcast but much of which is unavailable elsewhere.

“We just added a fascinating stream-of-consciousness
interview with Bodie Miller just after he was disqualified from
the slalom, as he was walking to his trailer — where he lives
– carrying his skis and poles and shin guards,” Zenkel said.
“One of our reporters walked with him and basically just let
him talk. We showed a small part of that on the air, but the
whole 10-12 minutes of it is on NBCOlym-pics.com.”

People generally access the online content in small bursts,
he said. What they watch tends to fall into three categories:
the moments they were most excited about when they were
broadcast; exclusive content; and moments they missed but now
want to see because everyone’s talking about them.

Two deals in particular help viewers discover NBC’s online
Olympics coverage. One is a cross-promotional editorial
agreement with About.com. The other is a deal with Google to
use a new product that Google calls “one box,” a side panel on
the results page that NBC Olympics fills with photos and
preview clips whenever anyone searches for one of more than 400
key words Zenkel and his team have identified as being relevant
to the Turin games. Each clip links back to NBCOlym-pics.com,
where the entire clip can be viewed.

Google Video will offer NBC Olympics content for sale as
well. “At the conclusion of the Olympics we will offer
different highlight packages — one general and a few others
that will be sports specific,” Zenkel said. “We were very
interested in working with Google Video to direct traffic to
NBCOlympics.com, and that is all part of the same agreement.”

ON-THE-GO OFFERINGS

Fans can visit NBCOlym-pics.com using many types of mobile
phones as well, thanks to what is called a WAP (Wireless
Application Protocol) subset created in cooperation with mobile
entertainment company Zingy.

Beyond that, NBC Olympics is making available at least five
video highlights daily through MobiTV and will provide users
with the opportunity to sign up for event and broadcast alerts,
via Goldpocket Wireless.

In addition, Bob Costas will be hosting a daily podcast
through a partnership with Apple. Available on Apple’s iTunes,
the audio show covers each day’s highlights and gives a preview
of what’s next.

For those who are at home, there are many opportunities for
personalizing the Olympics experience. The Olympic Winter Games
run until February 26 on NBC, USA Network, CNBC, MSNBC and
Universal HD. TV Guide Channel will combine these into a
special Olympic Winter Games area in its scrolling program
listings along with news updates and other enhancements.

Zenkel said more than 20 million homes have interactive
television. Those with enabled Dish Network, DirecTV and Time
Warner systems can use a special section to follow their
interest more deeply.

Helping viewers sort through all this content, TV Guide
Interactive as part of its main menu is featuring a 24-hour
interactive NBC Olympics icon, which viewers may click on for
quick access to the most up-to-date program listings and
information on the Olympic Winter Games airing across NBC’s
broadcast and cable networks.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter