![\"\"](\"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/NBCOlyStreaming1.jpg\")
<\/a>For the PyeongChang Winter Olympics, NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app have already tripled the number of live-streamed events it logged at the 2014 Sochi Games.<\/p><\/div>\n
In numbers reported by NBC Sports (which it attributes to Adobe Analytics), viewers logged a whopping 1.31 billion live-streaming minutes on NBCOlympics.com and through the NBC Sports app as of Feb. 18. That number triples the same metric from the whole 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics \u2014 with more than a week to spare. In addition, there were 11.6 million unique views as of the same date, up 174% from Sochi (4.3 million).<\/p>\n
Things are going well. But, outside of the natural growth in usership of authenticated live-streaming apps over the past four years, what\u2019s the deal? In the eyes of execs at NBC Olympics, the key reason for the explosion in digital viewers is connected TV. Devices like Apple TV, Roku, and Amazon Fire \u2014 none of which, mind you, even existed during the previous Winter Games \u2014 are providing an easy-to-navigate environment and a lean-back experience on one\u2019s home television screen.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been blown away by connected,\u201d says Rick Cordella<\/strong>, EVP\/GM, digital media, NBC Sports Group. \u201cHistorically, the Olympics have seen our \u2018primetime\u2019 audience come in around noon on a weekday, when everyone\u2019s taking their lunch break. Now it\u2019s shifted with connected TVs, where we are mirroring what [linear] TV is seeing. So our peaks are at night in primetime, they’re on Saturday and Sunday, and we have a large number of people streaming tape-delayed coverage on NBCSN, which has never happened before.\u201d<\/p>\n NBC Sports Group\u2019s Rick Cordella says use of connected-TV devices has been a boon to this Olympics\u2019 streaming numbers.<\/p><\/div>\n Cordella notes that the app experience on a phone or laptop is great for viewing on the go but tends to deliver shorter use times. Through the connected-TV devices, users are more likely to throw an event on their big screen and consume content for longer stretches.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you think about the different platforms, desktop and mobile,\u201d he says, \u201cyou seek out content. You know it\u2019s there, you know what you want to watch, you want to go find it, you watch it, and you\u2019re done. Now we’re seeing the sort of lean-back experience of TV with all the connected devices. Like I mentioned, we had a few hundred thousand people watching NBC\u2019s taped coverage on a Sunday afternoon. We\u2019re saying, Wow, never seen that before. That\u2019s been the big change.”<\/p>\n Delivering the Experience \u201cA big thing for us was, the Super Bowl was just three days prior [to the start of the Olympics],\u201d notes Cordella. \u201cSo you have all these new people coming in and downloading the [NBC Sports] app. We obviously had an enormous audience for the Super Bowl, and we actually have seen a pretty good crossover of that audience back with us at the Olympics. I think it benefited us having that happening just three days in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n On the backend, NBC Olympics\u2019 live-streaming experience is a product of NBC Sports\u2019 Playmaker Media and its technology partner iStreamPlanet. More than 75 staffers work through the night at NBC Sports\u2019 facility in Stamford, CT, to support and QC the technology of the live-streaming product.<\/p>\n Plus, the Olympics aren\u2019t happening in a silo for NBC Sports. Its other properties\u00a0\u2014 including the NFL, NHL, and Premier League\u00a0\u2014 continue to test the infrastructure\u2019s capabilities on a nightly basis.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all still powered by the same technology stack,\u201d says Eric Black<\/strong>, chief technology officer,\u00a0NBC Sports Digital and Playmaker Media. “It\u2019s really just a balance of volume and, frankly, overnights since our staff is largely [in Stamford] from 8 p.m. ET on. The volume and the concurrency of what we\u2019re doing is pretty on-par with what we see on most of our weekends. The difference is, it\u2019s every night for 17 straight nights. That\u2019s where the challenges lie.\u201d<\/p>\n Enhancing the Experience<\/strong> During the primetime show, viewers are welcomed with a slate of information, including a rundown of the events and athletes to be featured that night.\u00a0ChyronHego Lyric Pro graphics-creation software is used to create and insert the dynamic, reactive \u201ccards.\u201d For example, during a live figure-skating stream, users would be able to access \u201ccards\u201d with data like the upcoming order of skaters, medal counts, and individual skater info with video highlights.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have a massive database of facts, insights, and research,\u201d explains\u00a0Jack Jackson<\/strong>, VP, digital product development, NBC Sports Group. \u201cIt\u2019s all about getting the athletes out of the helmets and goggles and connecting them with the fans.\u201d<\/p>\n NBC Sports is also using chapter markers (available on most platforms) on the live-streaming timeline to make the navigation of longform\/live content simpler for users. With a graphic-interface point, viewers can easily track back to the start of a race or identify where a favorite athlete\u2019s run took place in the stream.<\/p>\n NBC Digital is also using a Blackmagic Design switcher to offer access to bonus camera angles \u2014 on such spots as the warmup room, the coach\u2019s box, or the \u201ckiss and cry\u201d \u2014 at appropriate times.<\/p>\n Jason Dachman contributed to this report.<\/em><\/p>\n Despite the worries regarding the dramatic time-zone shift coming into these Winter Games (PyeongChang is a full 14 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone), NBC Olympics in the U.S. […]\n More<\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":135228,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[8899,9248,14645],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135227"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135227"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135227\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":135317,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135227\/revisions\/135317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.sportsvideo.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>
\n<\/strong>For all of its international rightsholding broadcasters, host broadcaster Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS) produces a white-label version of a live-streaming app that can be taken and directly delivered to consumers. Major broadcasters like NBC Sports, however, choose instead to take OBS\u2019s package of APIs (application-programming interfaces) and SDKs (software-development kits) in order to plug the live-streaming video and event data directly into its own existing app. The obvious benefit is that many viewers may already have the NBC Sports app on their device and the network wins with the branding and exposure that comes with pushing new users to a primary app. Plus, it takes a major effort to get a user to download a new app for a two-week event, and then, with a one-off white-label app, the broadcaster loses all of that valuable user data when the event is over.<\/p>\n
\nUsers may have noticed a few enhancements to this Olympics\u2019 streaming experience. NBC Sports is calling it\u00a0\u201cEnhanced Viewing Experience\u201d because the network leverages its archived media assets and data feeds coming in from OBS to provide a more informative and interactive UI.<\/p>\n\n
For more of our coverage from the PyeongChang Winter Olympic Games, including interviews, videos, podcasts, and more, visit our\u00a0SportsTech Live<\/a>\u00a0Blog.<\/i><\/span><\/h4>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"