Every two years, for two weeks the world becomes transfixed on high performance sport and this year, the Sochi Olympic games did not disappoint. Four years ago, Vancouver was dubbed the ‘social’ games as those competing, attending or hearing were creating buzz via social media.

Sochi, however, brought about a revolution in how viewers tuned in for the games. In Canada as well as USA, mobile streaming apps took over and the numbers were staggering. In USA, viewers averaged 111.4 minutes streaming via the web and 94.3 minutes via the NBC Olympics app or Live Extra app.  For PC viewers, the average visit was 30 minutes compared to 12.3 minutes during the 2008 Olympics. 

In Canada, CBC reported that over the two weeks of the games, they received more than 256 million page views and about 14 million hours of online video content consumed which was double seen during the Vancouver Olympics.

With respect to mobile, CBC saw their iOS and Android apps downloaded 2.5 millions times generating over 380 million views. These were also the first games where all of the events could be streamed live delivering roughly 1,519 hours of viewable coverage.

Streaming a considerable amount of content myself, and the changes in the consumption of media over the last two years, the stats speak for themselves and clearly represent a shift from conventional TV. Delivering a tailored experience offering choice was key to the success of all the apps and streaming services available during the Olympics.

With extensive experience in TV Everywhere products, don’t hesitate to reach out if you have any questions or are looking at creating a streaming experience.