NBC gives you the Olympics live…online
NBC is broadcasting the Olympics live online, and thrilling online sports fans everywhere.
Not so thrilled are other news agencies, reports the AP. There’s some anger among the news outlets with claims that NBC is being high-handed with its broadcasting rights to the point of burdensome restrictions. Blorge’s Susan Wilson previously reported that NBC’s Olympic webcasting also has the added burden of only being usable for Vista users.
NBC’s ’shut-out’ policy probably comes from protecting its investment – NBC paid $3.5 billion to the International Olympics Committee to televise the Olympics. Besides NBCOlympics.com, no other website is allowed to post video from the Games online.
Besides video, NBC will have live blogging, 3,000 hours of highlights on demand, analysis, daily recaps and even fantasy league gaming. That’s just the online portion – there’ll be at least 1,400 hours of coverage planned on six television networks in Beijing.
“We’re excited about what we are putting into the fingertips of the Olympics fan,” said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. “We think it will generate a tremendous amount of engagement. We think it will generate more television viewership.”
Video from the site will only be shown after the footage is shown on television, ensuring no one actually favours the Web over television.
Online coverage of a sporting event is nothing new. But this is probably an unprecedented move by any television network to broadcast all that media online. As to features like live blogging and fantasy leagues, BBC live-blogged the last World Cup in Germany while Yahoo provided news, games and yes, fantasy leagues for sports fans.
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