The Internet and mobile phones more than ever were part of the Olympic viewing experience, allowing Canadians to watch the Games on the go, catch what they may have missed and then turn on the TV for more content.

"You want to drive people to the Internet and give them more information on the Internet, and then bring them back to the network," said Scott Moore, CBC's executive director of television sports.

"I think we did that very well," Moore said.

The CBC said its online coverage generated more than 46 million page views during the Beijing Olympic Games from Aug. 8-24.

Canadians viewed more than 3.2 million live streams of the Games on the Internet and 1.7 million on-demand video streams via the web. The CBC website included more than 1,500 hours of live and on-demand Olympic coverage.

They also tuned into CBC television.

More than 24 million TV viewers watched coverage of the Olympics on CBC Television, CBC Newsworld and the CBC's bold channel, the federal broadcaster has said.

"I think it shows that viewers want to be able to access content where and when they want it and that won't hurt television numbers," Moore said in an interview.

The online total for Beijing easily surpassed the 27 million page views registered during the Athens Games in 2004.

Syndicated technology columnist Marc Saltzman said watching the Olympics on cellphones or computer screens didn't replace the TV experience.

Consumers will "sip" on this kind of content for a shorter viewing experience and then they can turn on the TV for more content, he said.

"I think the 2008 Summer Olympics is certainly the first Games in Canada, anyhow, that we were able to really take advantage of mobile television," said Saltzman, who writes for the MSN website and numerous publications.

"It's also the type of event that's perfect for this platform. It goes on all day and you may have a particular sport that you follow and you can pop in and get what you need and pull back out again. It's great to have this on-demand or a live broadcast streaming this kind of content."

Bell Mobility offered its cellphone subscribers live CBC-Radio-Canada coverage of the Games for a one-time fee of $8 that also included hourly highlight packages.

"I think we were able to take the Olympic viewing out of your home and you could take it with you," said Nauby Jacob, vice-president of user experience and content at Bell Mobility.

Bell didn't have any mobile viewing numbers immediately available.

Jacob said Bell plans to offer even more mobile content for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.

U.S.-based analyst Bobby Tulsiani said there were complaints in the U.S. that NBC didn't have major events both live on television and the Internet at the same time.

For example, U.S. viewers couldn't stream Olympic champion Michael Phelps' swims live on the Internet if they were live on NBC TV and had to watch his races on the web after the fact.

"I think the Canadians took a bold approach there," said Tulsiani of New York-based Jupiter Research.

"The evidence is mostly indicative of what your Canadian broadcasting company found, is that it does help rather cannibalize the (TV) audience."

TV, computer screens and cellphones can all complement each other when it comes to viewing, but it depends on how it's executed, he said.

Tulsiani said while there's a large segment of consumers who want to watch the Olympics and other sports events on their PCs via the Internet, watching these kinds of events on mobile phones might not be as popular because of the much smaller screens.

"I don't think the technology is ready. I don't think consumers are aware of it either," Tulsiani said, adding money still needs to be made from the effort.

U.S.-based Nielsen Mobile, which tracks the behaviour of what it calls mobile consumers, hasn't released its numbers of how global consumers used their cellphones to watch the Olympics.

"From what we've seen, we're pleased to see the consumer enthusiasm for mobile Olympic coverage," said Nic Covey, director of insights.

"We're sharing the data with clients to reveal just how those consumers leveraged mobile this Games," he said in an email.

Source:canadianpress