Beijing Olympics push live sports streaming to unprecedented scale
The 2008 Beijing Olympics began with broadcasters preparing thousands of hours of online video, including NBC's plan for roughly 2,200 hours of live internet coverage in the United States. The event became an early demonstration that broadband streaming could complement television during a global sports spectacle.
Historical context
Olympic broadcasting had historically been organized around scarce television channels and tightly controlled territorial rights. Broadband adoption, content-delivery infrastructure, geolocation technology and browser video systems had matured enough by 2008 to support much larger online audiences and many parallel live feeds.
What happened
For the August 8-24 Games, NBCOlympics.com planned approximately 2,200 hours of live streaming and thousands more hours on demand, far beyond the limited online video available during previous Olympics. Multiple simultaneous competitions could therefore be distributed online even when linear television channels could not carry them all.
Consequences
Beijing helped establish large sporting events as major streaming-media use cases. It showed rights holders and broadcasters that the web could extend coverage beyond television schedules, especially for simultaneous or less prominent competitions, while preserving geographic rights controls.
Related people
Sources
- Streaming the 2008 Beijing OlympicsStreaming Media
- Summer Olympics Stream to a PC Near YouABC News / PCWorld