2012-06-15

New Media to Offer \"Anywhere, Anytime\" Coverage of Olympic Games

Guest Speakers Talking about New Way of Watching London Olympics

Guest speakers at the Shanghai TV Festival summit "New Way of Watching London Olmpics" focused on how new media can integrate resources to create better user experiences and cover the Games on different platforms.

The emerging theme of the summit at Shanghai Exhibition Center yesterday was that traditional TV broadcasts of the Games faced challenges brought on by new media which offered new methods to cover the event and enhance user engagement.

Wang Li, chief assistant editor of CNTV, introduced the company\'s multi-platform coverage plan for the looming Olympics in London.

"CNTV will be broadcasting all 5,600 hours of competition online," Wang said.

CNTV will launch its 5+ application for computers as well as apps for mobile devices. The features will enable users to customize their homepage and discuss with friends in chat rooms.

Jesse Goranson, The Nielsen Company\'s Senior Vice President for media and telecom in Greater China, talked about research into ratings and consumer engagement for previous Olympic Games coverage.

During the Beijing Olympics in 2008, 80 percent of all users from 32 countries watched the event at least once, he said. Today\'s audiences will not only watch the competition, but also engage via tools like social media.

"As researchers, we are very interested in how consumers are changing how they watch the Olympics," Goranson said.

Other guest speakers agreed that the London Olympic Games has brought new challenges and opportunities and new media is creating better and more efficient ways to cover the event from all angles.