NBC Banks on New Technology for Olympics

Written by Steve Donohue

Thursday, May 29. 2008 at 11:58 AM EDT 3 comments

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With less than three months to go until the 2008 Summer Olympics kick off in Beijing, hundreds of Web pros on three continents are preparing to launch the biggest new media programming event yet for NBC Sports.

NBC Universal plans to distribute 2,200 hours of live video on NBCOlympics.com and 3,000 hours of on-demand content -- more than any previous Olympics. To pull it off, the company is teaming up with several technology firms to handle everything from encoding, hosting, and streaming video to producing interactive graphics and mobile phone content.

In January, NBC announced its biggest vendor agreement for NBCOlympics.com, cutting a deal with Microsoft Corp. (Nasdaq: MSFT) to use the software giant’s Silverlight browser plugin to deliver video on the site. NBC, which has worked closely with Microsoft on Web ventures since the launch of their MSNBC joint venture in 1996, chose the Silverlight platform over rival products such as Flash Media from Adobe Systems Inc. (Nasdaq: ADBE) and Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL)'s Quicktime.

Microsoft will also promote content from NBCOlympics.com prominently on MSN.com as part of the agreement. The traffic from MSN, which draws 100 million unique visitors monthly, also played a role in NBC's decision to choose Microsoft, says Perkins Miller, senior vice president of digital media for NBC Universal Sports & Olympics.

One drawback of Silverlight is that it requires Web surfers to download software. Microsoft says it is averaging 1.5 million Silverlight downloads each day. But Miller says he isn't concerned about the download requirement hurting traffic at NBCOlympics.com.

"I think most people are used to dealing with emerging technology to occasionally take a quick download," Miller said. "While we would prefer and we would very much expect that the Silverlight install base will grow between now and the Games, we don't think it's going to be a very big impediment to people viewing the Games."

Web surfers will be able to view live and on-demand video from the Olympics in Silverlight's full-screen mode. Silverlight will also allow users to pull up biographies, statistics, and other content related to the Olympians featured in each video.

Miller said NBCOlympics.com will also offer a picture-in-picture option for users watching videos in full-screen mode. It will also offer a "control room experience," running four live feeds simultaneously on a screen.

Technical teams in Beijing; New York; Stamford, Conn.; Redmond, Wash.; and Torino, Italy are teaming up to produce NBCOlympics.com.

NBC signed Torino-based Web technology firm Deltatre as its systems integrator and core publisher. Deltatre is creating the Web pages and slideshows for the site, managing incoming data feeds to publish results and integrating external feeds and third party applications.

Video highlights production and editing will be run in New York, along with content that will be delivered to mobile phones. NBC will also produce original videos and studio programs in Stamford.

Staffers at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond will run video hosting. Silverlight and MSN producers are also based there.

NBC signed Limelight Networks Inc. (Nasdaq: LLNW) to handle content delivery network services. The Tempe, Ariz.-based technology firm will help accelerate the delivery of the Silverlight content, delivering the video directly to last-mile providers.

Ontario-based Digital Rapids will handle media encoding, transcoding, and streaming for the video on NBCOlympics.com. The streams will be encoded in the VC-1 compression format developed by Microsoft.

NBC only offered one live event on NBCOlympics.com during the 2006 Winter Olympics in Torino -- the gold medal hockey game in which Sweden beat Finland 4-3. NBCOlympics.com generated a record 338 million page views during the Torino Games.

Miller declined to discuss NBC's projections for traffic and ad revenue from NBC.com, other than noting that the company expects to break the traffic record it set in Torino.

"We're forecasting it to be larger, especially on the video front. We've gone from where we streamed one hockey game from Torino without telling anybody to 2,100 hours of live video on the site," Miller said.

NBC will rely on several different ad formats on the site, including pre-roll and post-roll spots for the videos, banner ads, and integrated advertising. Perkins said NBC has sold about 70 percent of the ad inventory available on the site.

Miller said NBC will also distribute live Olympics video on mobile phones for the first time, but only to AT&T subscribers. The company struck a deal with AT&T that will allow the company to simulcast NBC video coverage to its mobile phone customers.

NBC will also offer a significant amount of local content on NBCOlympics.com. When users first visit the site, they're prompted to enter their zip code.

Local TV listings are displayed to each user on the site, and local NBC affiliates also supply content for the local sections. The videos include profiles on hometown athletes competing in Beijing.

"It's a way for people to localize the site," Miller said.