With NBC reporting record digital traffic for its online and
mobile coverage of the Olympics in the U.S., the 2012 London games also seem to
be living up to expectations as the first big digital Olympics in other markets
as well. The Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium reported today that its
web sites have seen nearly 90 million page views and that mobile is accounting
for 61% of the traffic, five times more than usual.
Downloads of the CTV Olympics London 2012 and RDS olympiques
pour Londres 2012 apps are also approaching the 1 million mark, a huge number
for a country that has fewer than 35 million residents.
"The mobile traffic is staggering," said Mark Silver, Head
of Digital, Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium, a joint venture between
CTV (with a 80% interest) and Rogers Media Inc. (with 20% interest) that is
providing the on-air and digital coverage. "Live sports trend toward mobile
access, however, to have audiences engage with us via mobile platforms in such
great numbers lets us know that these Games are really important to Canadians,
and that they are staying with us for the action throughout the day."
Overall the Consortium is providing a record amount of
digital coverage, with over 3,500 hours on a variety of online, mobile and
other platforms.
The Consortium is also reporting strong interest in à la
carte purchases of its coverage, with downloads of Bell Media programs on
iTunes have increased 690% over the previous week.
Traffic is also up from Vancouver 2010 games, which were
particularly popular in Canada because they were located in the country.
CTVOlympics.ca and RDSolympiques.ca have seen growth in page
views, up 10% over the same time period during Vancouver 2010. About 25% of all
video views, which total more than 10 million for the sites, were of live video
streams.
Users were also active on social media. During the first
seven days of coverage there were more than 70,000 brand interactions on social
networks and almost one million clicks into the online Social Scene that
accompanies live streams and live broadcast television. The 25 to 34 and 35 to
44 year old demo dominated the usage.
