The total global TV audience for London 2012 expected to reach 5 billion
Touted as the ‘Digital Olympics’, London 2012 is expected to be a tipping point in the balance of viewing between linear TV and online interactive services for live events. Adrian Pennington reports on how the two will interact later this summer
THE DOMINANT viewing media for the Olympics remains TV with a total global TV audience for London expected to reach 5 billion, but in mature markets streaming media will play a major role in keeping audiences up to date with almost every aspect of every sport — live. “Broadcasters are preparing IP video for laptops, tablets and smartphones to support viewing of live events while at work, as well as augmenting their VoD capabilities to provide audiences with control of which sports to watch at home,” says ABI Research Senior Analyst Sam Rosen. “Many will experiment with new video distribution to customers including through Facebook, HTML5 websites optimised for multiple screens, dedicated iPad or Android apps, and apps for connected TV products.” “One of the big changes is the
introduction of tablet devices into the market, almost all sales of which have occurred since Vancouver,” notes Mark Hyland, general manager for QuickPlay, a managed service provider of video over IP. He expects the penetration of tablets, plus the critical availability of higher resolution content, to result in new records being set for the volume of consumption on portable devices. QuickPlay is a technology partner of Canada’s Bell Media (and its subsidiary CTV) which, with Rogers Media, formed a consortium to win the rights to London 2012. “We are building on what we
achieved at Vancouver, which in itself was built on learning from NBC’s digital delivery of the 2008 Games,” says Mark Silver, senior digital director. “For Vancouver we ingested, edited and encoded clips into a MAM in a traditional
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TVBEurope 39 London 2012 Countdown
tipping point Thdigital
Stadium view: “One big change is the introduction of tablet devices, almost all sales of which have occurred since Vancouver,” says Mark Hyland