Olympics Web Site a Winner for NBC

Page Traffic Runs High as Network Finds Ways to Increase Viewers' Control

Tatiana Totmianina and Maxim Marinin of Russia compete in pairs figure skating. The games are a chance for NBC to experiment with Web offerings. (By Al Bello -- Getty Images)

The NBC Olympics Web site is attracting visitors in much larger numbers this year than during previous Olympic Games as consumers increasingly demand control over how and when they get updates and watch video.

NBC said yesterday that page views on NBCOlympics.com since the games opened on Saturday totaled 18.7 million, up 63 percent from the Athens Summer Games in 2004 and up 400 percent from the Salt Lake City games in 2002.

The increases reflect NBC's effort to use the Olympics as a laboratory for testing new approaches to reach fragmented groups of consumers. This year, NBC launched a partnership with Google that provides Olympics video to the search engine, and it provides rival ESPN.com with highlights packages anchored by Bob Costas and has an arrangement with About.com that gives visitors one-click access to medal counts and up-to-the-minute results.

Both partners benefit in each of these cross-promotional experiments. Google, for instance, brings attention to its video business through its relationship with the Olympics.

"Part of what Google is trying to do is reinforce the idea that there is Internet video on Google," said Josh Bernoff, an entertainment and television analyst at Forrester Research Inc. "Today, it's the Olympics -- next it will be the elections or anything else that has a lot of video with it."

A daily Bob Costas audio podcast is downloadable through iTunes, and several mobile phone updates are available. NBC enticed younger visitors through efforts on MySpace.com and MTV.com and created a youth-oriented Web site called OffthePodium.com highlighting the athletes' lifestyles.

"We found that the more content we make available, the more buzz we create," said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. "There's an audience for the consumption of media that's super-strong in front of the TV and also strong when people are not. We have to make sure our content is made available to people wherever they are."

With its overwhelming number of events, the Winter Games provides a window on the pickiness of the new consumer. Phil Leigh, an analyst at Inside Digital Media Inc. in Tampa said he isn't interested in watching curling or bobsledding but loves the downhill skiing.

"When you see something you're really into, you want to see it over and over again -- the Internet makes that possible," he said. "NBC is initiating a new paradigm for Olympics coverage. When people write the history of the Olympics on the Internet, 2006 will be seen as a milestone."

Even viewers stuck on the sofa are finding ways to tap into the NBC Olympics Web site. Television customers in seven cities served by Time Warner Cable are using a new software developed by BIAP Systems Inc. that connects their TVs to the Internet. Viewers can program their television to produce a banner on the screen that will provide live updates from the NBC Web site on events from the Olympics.

For a broadcaster such as NBC, the new technologies broaden the scope of content for a wider array of customers. "The Olympics is a thousand little bits, and broadcast TV struggles in that situation," Bernoff said. "It cries out to allow people to get more information on demand and get notified about what they're interested in."