The BBC’s interactive coverage of the Olympics has attracted 6.13 million viewers, meaning that half the available audience has tuned in at some point since the opening ceremony on the 13th August.
The BBC is including viewers who watched for at least a minute in the six million figure – though only 46% of the total watched the service for more than 25 minutes.
Andrew Thompson, head of new media, sports news and development for BBC Sport said: “The Olympics are perfect for interactive television because there are so many events happening at the same time. Before we had the interactive option, hundreds of hours of footage disappeared down a black hole. But now with interactive television, viewers have up to four extra sports to choose from and, judging by the initial figures, they are taking full advantage of that.”
The BBC’s traditional TV coverage has also been a success – a record 6.2 million viewers have tuned to to watch the evening highlights on BBC 2.
UK broadband internet users can get a taste of the BBC’s interactive TV service by following the link below.
BBC Sport Olympics Coverage
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Fraser Lovatt
Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people.
Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon.
At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC.
After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video.
These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?
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