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Olympic Games: An Information Age Milestone

Published on February 27, 2006 | Email this article

Though the television viewership of the Winter Olympics was lower than years previous, NBC’s Winter Olympics website set online traffic records, representing another milestone in the evolving ways viewers get their information, writes The Chicago Tribune.

NBC Olympic president Gary Zenkel said, “There’s a shift in behavior, and people now are looking to this site for coverage and they’re consuming the video in ever increasing numbers.” With five days left in the Games, NBCOlympics.com site traffic hit 262.2 million page views, topping the whole of the 2004 Athens Summer Games of 251.4 million.

Changing internet patterns helped induce the shift. Users interact with the content and get instant results. Nielsen//NetRatings media analyst Jon Gibs said people check the web for results before watching the Games or other shows on TV. Video streams of the Games’ highlights doubled the number of videos streamed during the Athens Games.

NBC also found its cable channels a successful vehicle for offering Olympics programming.

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