Category: Sport;
New
Media
Date: 07.09.2004
Printable version
Figures released
today show record numbers accessed the 2004 Athens Olympics through
the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's interactive TV service and bbc.co.uk.
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8.96 million digital satellite viewers pressed the red
button to use the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's interactive Olympic services, the highest reaching
service to date and more than double the previous peak for Wimbledon
2004.
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83 per cent of those who had pressed the red button
used the service for more than three minutes; 61% were still interacting
15 minutes into the service, and 51% stayed over 25 minutes.
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The figures show that 58% of the available digital satellite
audience have pressed red to interact.
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The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's broadband Olympics service Β– which included
both live and highlights coverage Β– attracted an estimated 2.8m
requests for at-home broadband streaming.
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bbc.co.uk/olympics attracted 5.7m unique users during
the games with bbc.co.uk/sport and bbc.co.uk/sportacademy also registering
their highest ever weekly page impressions.
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Andrew Thompson, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Sport's Head of New Media, Sports
News and Development, said: "This was the first ever truly interactive
Olympics; a model for multi-media working at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ in the future.
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"The interactive services give our audiences exactly
what they wanted across the web and interactive TV: extra choice about
what events they watch, when and how they watched them.
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"These astonishing figures
are a tribute to the production and technical teams who worked so effectively
together across all media to deliver a fantastic choice of compelling
content."
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Notes to Editors
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The figures for interactive viewing measure only viewers
from digital satellite (Sky) homes, and do not include digital cable
and Freeview.
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The Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ's interactive Olympics service gave digital
satellite and cable viewers the opportunity to choose from four streams
of live coverage through the red button in addition to Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ ONE and Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ
TWO.
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For the first time ever, only UK visitors to bbc.co.uk
could access live streamed content of the Olympics.
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