• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

NBC to Field Online Olympic Stream

Posted on: Friday, 10 November 2006, 06:00 CST

By Michael Hiestand

NBC this week suggested that what seemed impossible in the 20th century now seems inevitable: live online video coverage of the Olympics.

NBC Sports Chairman Dick Ebersol told Advertising Age that the network is "in a position to live-stream" from 800 to 1,000 hours of live action from the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics. That is in addition to 800 hours on NBC's various cable TV channels and 200 hours in NBC's prime-time slots. The network expects a 20% ratings jump on the eight nights of the Games where it can carry live action from events, such as swimming and gymnastics, moved partly to accommodate U.S. TV.

The Internet was never supposed to work for big sports events because it was worldwide. Putting sports events on it would play havoc with traditional TV deals, which are based on selling TV rights to specific geographic areas. Plus, who'd want to watch online anyway?

Well, people bored at work, for a start. Especially now that so many of them now have broadband access.

Technology now enables online content to be targeted at specific geographic areas. That lets Major League Baseball put its local TV games online without letting them become available where they air on TV. It allows Fox Sports Net's Evander Holyfield-Fres Oquendo fight Friday to appear live online outside the USA -- even as it simultaneously airs on pay-per-view TV inside the country.

Ebersol, who now declines to comment, told Advertising Age it hasn't been decided whether viewers will pay for online Olympic action. The answer isn't obvious: CBS' NCAA basketball tournament coverage went from charging fees to being free to attract viewers -- who, in turn, attract online advertisers.

NBC Sports is playing catch-up online, as it trails the other network sports sites. In October, says Media Metrix, ESPN drew 20.3 million separate users. NBC, ranked No.22 among sports sites, drew 771,000.

Given that TV coverage has expanded so dramatically -- NBC's total TV hours grew from about 440 for the 2000 Sydney Games to about 1,210 at the 2004 Athens Games -- what's left to go online? Lots more: The Athens Olympic world TV feed ran 3,800 hours.

It'd be fun to see it all online, even simulcasts of what's on TV. Online users could choose between camera shots, listen to miked coaches, see every news conference and watch cameras for odd but interesting views -- like the cameras focused on continuous online coverage of famous golf holes.

This kind of stuff could give us all something new to do at work for two summer weeks in 2008. (c) Copyright 2005 USA TODAY, a division of Gannett Co. Inc.

Source: USA TODAY

More News in this Category