{"id":936,"date":"2012-08-06T08:46:21","date_gmt":"2012-08-06T12:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/?p=936"},"modified":"2012-08-06T08:46:21","modified_gmt":"2012-08-06T12:46:21","slug":"bbcs-super-served-olympics-shows-how-narrowcast-can-go-large","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/2012\/08\/06\/bbcs-super-served-olympics-shows-how-narrowcast-can-go-large\/","title":{"rendered":"BBC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s super-served Olympics shows how narrowcast can go large"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note to NBC \u00e2\u20ac\u201c when you give viewers the opportunity to program their\u00c2\u00a0own<\/em> live Olympics schedule, they will gladly take up the offer.<\/p>\n

Although both NBC and the BBC are broadcasting multiple simultaneous live events on the web, the BBC is also pushing those streams out through up to 24 new channels to living-room TVs<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seventeen million people have used this BBC \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Red Button\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/strong> to watch those streams for at least 15 minutes over the last week, the corporation says<\/a>.<\/p>\n

That means around a quarter of the UK population\u00c2\u00a0has delved beyond primary linear TV<\/strong>, toward narrowcast live sport.<\/p>\n

What does this tell us about the nature of live, prime-time, linear broadcasting versus narrowcasted alternatives\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 ?<\/em><\/p>\n

1. Super-serving slices thick<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Firstly, whether they are carrying high-profile or esoteric, little-supported events, all 24 of those channels are being used\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

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Every one of the 24 channels has seen 100,000 users at some point, according to BBC Sport and London 2012 product head Cait O\u00e2\u20ac\u2122Riordan. Although the sheer breadth of simultaneous options might have diluted the audience for each, it appears to have held steady \u00e2\u20ac\u201c 100,000 is a considerable audience for narrowcast events.<\/p>\n

2. Even bigger than the web<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In the same period, the BBC Sport Olympics website has clocked up 18 million unique browsers, peaking at eight million from the UK. That means more UK viewers are engaging with their living-room Red Button than with the website.<\/p>\n

The web has become acknowledged as the uber catch-up, choice and depth platform. Audiences just hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet appeared conditioned to expect, on their TV<\/em>, the same number of choices presented online\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

But the BBC is blurring the platforms.\u00c2\u00a0Although all 24 BBC Olympics live streams are being streamed on the BBC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s website, the same IP streams also arrive on\u00c2\u00a0the BBC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Virgin Media and connected TV Red Button platforms.<\/p>\n

3. Narrowcast is surviving broadcast onslaught<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The BBC has devoted excellent blanket coverage to the Olympics. Three of the UK\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s primary linear channels \u00e2\u20ac\u201c BBC One, Two and Three \u00e2\u20ac\u201c have all but shelved their daytime and evening schedules in place of live events, analysis, interviews, highlights and magazine features. There may be enough material being pumped out of these core channels to satisfy anyone \u00e2\u20ac\u201c even those who have missed an event are likely to find highlights looping around any minute now.<\/p>\n

But that makes the 24 streams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 performance even more impressive, proving that there is always a passionate audience wanting to go deep<\/strong>, no matter how niche the interest.<\/p>\n

4. UK mobile viewing matching U.S.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Last week, an under-pressure NBC said 45 percent of its Olympics IP video streams were to mobile and tablet devices. BBC figures show a similar ratio, with a combined 41 percent. It is fascinating to see mobile viewing consistently high in two entirely different timezones\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

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\n<\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a> <\/a>\n<\/div>\n

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via paidContent http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/2012\/08\/06\/bbcs-multi-stream-tv-olympics-shows-how-narrowcast-can-go-large\/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+pcorg+%28paidContent%29<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note to NBC \u00e2\u20ac\u201c when you give viewers the opportunity to program their\u00c2\u00a0own live Olympics schedule, they will gladly take up the offer. Although both NBC and the BBC are broadcasting multiple simultaneous live events on the web, the BBC is also pushing those streams out through up to 24 new channels to living-room TVs. … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “BBC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s super-served Olympics shows how narrowcast can go large”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[6,136,441],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-google-reader","tag-ifttt","tag-paidcontent","tag-robert-andrews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2skW4-f6","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gabrielsnyder.com\/notes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}