More than 10 per cent of 16-64 year olds watched either live or highlights coverage of the Beijing Olympics on the internet, according to a survey by research consultancy BMRB.
Highlights clips online were most popular, with 13 per cent of the age group accessing them. Live events were watched by 11 per cent.
The BBC, which owned the television, internet and radio rights for the Games in the UK, used the event to launch an unprecedented level of online video and interactive TV coverage, and has been rewarded with record-breaking viewing figures.
The BBC Sport website received over 40 million video requests (website users clicking ‘play’ on video content) during the Beijing Games, compared to only 2.5 million during the Athens Games in 2004. The Athens Olympics were the first event from which the BBC offered live streaming of events.
The BBC Sport website also experienced an increase of around 50 per cent in unique users during the Games, up to around 14 million per week. Normal traffic to the site is around 9-10 million users per week.
Ben Gallop, head of BBC Sport Interactive, said to BritSport Weekly that the event represented a ‘high-water mark’ for the moment, but that the Corporation was looking forward to an even bigger media event in four years time with London 2012.
Gallop added that the BBC expects interactive television viewing figures to be lower than at Athens, due to the time difference with China. However the BMRB data suggests that viewing figures may not be as poor as he fears, as 30 per cent of 16-64 year olds said they had used the service to view the Olympics.
Commenting on the Olympic data, William Field of media and telecoms consultancy Spectrum Value Partner, told BritSport Weekly that online consumption of the Olympics had now become mainstream. “Internet video and interactive TV now works very well - the technology is almost mature,” he said. “Online video viewing is nearly at the stage of not being a news story. The most interesting matter now is editorial decision-making. The BBC’s range of online content during the Olympics was very good.”
The BMRB survey showed that younger people - 16-24 year olds - were making even greater use of internet and interactive television offerings. The data suggests that nearly a quarter (23 per cent) of those in this age group watched internet highlights coverage, 18 per cent watched live internet coverage, and 42 per cent watched the Games on interactive TV.
In all, BMRB reported that that a massive 87 per cent of people in the 16-64 age group in the UK had followed the Olympics through some form of media, up until the final weekend.
Television viewing remains the undisputed main route of access to Games coverage. Highlights coverage was watched by 73 per cent, and live events by 71 per cent.
The importance of sport to the declining newspaper industry was also underlined by the survey, which showed that 42 per cent of 16-64 year olds read reports in newspapers, making them the second most popular medium behind television for Olympics coverage.
The survey showed that coverage on mobile phones was still far behind all other platforms. Only two per cent of 16-64 year olds accessed event results on their mobiles, and only 1 per cent viewed clips. The percentages were exactly the same for the 16-24 year old demographic.
