subject: Live From London! Olympics 2012 Going For The Streaming Gold [print this page] Setting a new record for Olympic London 2012 live online streaming
The Olympic mens long jump record, 8.9 meters, has not been broken in 44 years. The womens 200-meter sprint record, 21.34 seconds, has stood for 24 years, along with men's shot put, 22.47 meters, and steeplechase, 8:05:51 minutes. But in 2012, one record is guaranteed to crumble, as it did in 2010 and will likely do again in 2014: the record for live-streaming Olympic events online, 25, and total streaming hours, 2,200, and the online audience itself thats watching the games.
The 2012 Summer Olympics in London will be virtually 100% streamed all 32 sports, every event, 3,500 hours total over 17 days by both NBC and the BBC. At times, there may be as many as 40 simultaneous streams.
An Olympic gamble?
Streaming 100 percent of the games is a major strategic shift for NBC, which holds exclusive broadcast rights for the Olympics through 2020. While 2,200 hours of 25 sports were streamed live from Beijing in 2008, they did not include the marquee events reserved for prime time. Similarly, at the 2010 winter games in Vancouver, the premier events were largely reserved for the broadcast audience.
Going all-in on streaming is not a risk-free undertaking for NBC. In the past two games, it has limited streaming for fear of cannibalizing its broadcast audience, an understandable concern. If the network doesnt deliver the audience advertisers are expecting, its high-stakes gamble on the games through 2020 could cost a bundle.
The tidal shift toward online viewing since the most recent Olympics, though, is something NBC and the Olympic Committee could not ignore. Two years in Internet time is enough for paradigms to shift; four years is a lifetime. The iPhone was barely a year old for the Beijing Olympics. And the iPad came out the month after the Olympic flame was extinguished in Vancouver. Today, video viewing on the go and second screen viewing on the sofa are well-established habits.
As a hedge to protect its audience and advertisers, however, NBC isnt letting just anybody watch online. Anyone who wants to watch the live streams will have to verify that they are cable, satellite or telco subscribers to a service that carries the NBC signal. Cable-cutters will be restricted to the over-the-air broadcasts unless they can score cable credentials from a friend or relative.
Multiple online viewing venues
The main U.S. streaming outlet will be NBCOlympics.com, using a video player built by YouTube. Two mobile apps will support the effort. The NBC Olympics app brings users up-to-date schedules, news and results, backstories, and video highlights. NBC Live Extra is the app that gives users full streaming coverage of all the Olympic events.
Like NBC, the BBC is streaming all the Olympic events live on the Web and through dedicated mobile apps, but will also offer UK viewers the option to view streams directly within Facebook. BBC Sport debuted its Facebook streaming with the Wimbledon championship. For the Olympics, it will offer UK Facebook users 24 simultaneous streams, and the usual options to like, share, and chat with friends, as well as see which streams friends are watching.
