Olympics Is Biggest Multiplatform Event Ever, NBC Says

Written by Steve Donohue

Friday, August 15. 2008 at 10:15 AM EDT Post a comment

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One week into the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, NBC Universal is calling its coverage on TV, the Internet and mobile phones the largest multiplatform sports event of all time.

According to NBC, which has sold more than $1 billion in advertising running across all three platforms, NBCOlympics.com has hooked nearly 25 million unique users and about 3 million visits from mobile phone users. The site has also delivered nearly 25 million video streams.

NBC isn't the only one benefiting from the Olympics -- the games are also driving large traffic spikes to some of its Web rivals. Yahoo Inc. (Nasdaq: YHOO)'s Olympics Website drew 5.3 million unique visitors on Monday, which topped the 4.6 million visitors that NBC drew to NBCOlympics.com that day, according to Nielsen/NetRatings . AOL Inc. (NYSE: AOL)'s Olympics site drew 1.2 million unique visitors Monday, Nielsen says.

The Olympics numbers on Yahoo and AOL are significant, considering NBC is the only company that has rights to offer live and on-demand video from Beijing on its Website. Yahoo and AOL's Olympics sites consist mostly of news stories and photos from the Associated Press and other wire services.

While NBC's mobile phone content is limited mostly to news stories and photos, the network said its mobile WAP site has generated more than 9.5 million page views. Mobile users are spending about six minutes per visit on the site, NBC says.

NBCOlympics.com is also attracting more than 6 million users daily. Web surfers have already watched nearly 3.5 million hours of videos, spending close to 15 minutes per visit on the site.

But here's the bad news: NBC's coverage of Olympics swimming and gymnastics events end this weekend. It will be more difficult for the broadcaster to maintain peak traffic levels next week, when track and field events featuring fewer well-known U.S. athletes will take center stage in Beijing.