by: Michael Barkoviak
The Beijing Olympics are right around the corner, and media providers in the U.S. are getting their issues squared away
The 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing are right around the corner and broadcasters around the world are finalizing broadcast deals for television and mobile technologies. NBC Universal has exclusive rights to show the Olympics on television and plans to utilize technologies to show event coverage on TV, cell phones, and through the internet.
NBC used to be very restrictive over who else would be able to have access to Olympic content, but the company recently has agreed several different distribution deals to get the sporting events available to a larger audience. The interoperability between TV networks and phone carriers has helped all participating companies rake in millions from advertising over the course of the Olympic month.
Cell phone users on the AT&T network will be able to watch the 2008 Summer Olympics on a new 24/7 media channel operated by MediaFLO. In addition to live coverage in a select number of events, the NBCOlympics2Go service lets viewers will be able to go online to get athletes' statistics, records being set, and additional information able to offer an enhanced viewing experience.
"Consumers today expect to be able to access great content when and where they want it, and no content is more compelling than the Olympic Games," said Dan York, head of Content and Programming, AT&T. "AT&T is the only place to see NBC's live Olympic Games coverage on all three screens (PC, TV, and mobile phones) that matter the most to consumers today."
Verizon Wireless will provide daily Olympics highlights, breaking news, scores, results, medals counts and similar offerings through its V Cast video service. Verizon will also have two high-definition channels following basketball and soccer, which will air on NBC.
Through their broadband services, both companies will offer similar services as the wireless Olympics coverage, plus on-demand event coverage of some of the most popular sporting events.
NBC is expected to take in more than $1 billion in TV and internet advertising during this year's summer Olympics, with the channel receiving $750,000 for each 30-second TV advertisement. NBC made almost $1 billion in ad revenue during the 2004 Athens Olympics, with profit ranging between $60 and $70 million.
Since 1960, when the Olympics were first shown on TV in the United States, no network has tried to show as much coverage as NBC hopes to offer in a few weeks. NBC will show around 2,900 hours of live TV coverage, with about 30 percent of expected to be archived for later viewing. Around 1,500 hours of the content will be shown in HD.
