Viewers to Olympic Web Sites Flow, Videos Not So Much
August 11, 2008

While it may be nearly impossible for computer users with older browsers or slower connections (like me, for instance) to find a clean video replay of last night’s insanely exciting 4 x 100 swimming relay, that hasn’t stopped people from flocking to Olympics-related Web sites to get their fix of the Summer Games in Beijing.

Sites like NBC Olympics and Yahoo Olympics saw their viewership almost triple between the day before the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies and the day after the ceremonies, according to a report by Nielsen Online.

More than 7.3 million U.S. Web surfers combined visited the NBC and Yahoo sites on Aug. 9, up from about 2.8 million two days earlier, with another jump likely as more people try to get a recap of yesterday’s events from Beijing’s Water Cube.

Almost 900,000 people went to NBC’s Olympics Video site on Aug. 9, up from just 36,000 two days prior.

For those like me faced with the prospect of 10 minutes of stop-start motion on NBC’s site, though, there’s the beauty of YouTube, which has a clip of Jason Lezak’s closing leg of the swim relay.

Whoops, looks like that clip got pulled down.

Posted by Danny King on August 11, 2008 | Comments (0)