BBC to boost web-TV offering for London 2012
The London 2012 Olympic Games could fuel a leap in broadcasting technology not seen since the rush for televisions to watch the Queen's coronation, according to the BBC.
The corporation laid out plans for London 2012 that will see it "significantly" increase its web-TV capabilities, with "many more" online video streams than the six it offered during the Beijing Olympics. The BBC will also support a greater range of mobile devices and technological platforms, and set up 60 giant screens around the UK to allow sports fans to watch the Games outdoors en masse.
Speaking at a Westminster eForum event in London on Thursday, Ben Gallop, head of BBC Sport Interactive, said that 13 percent of viewers had watched the Beijing Games over broadband, compared to no more than three percent for the Athens Games in 2004.
The Beijing games fuelled an explosion in internet traffic, with a total of 38 million video streams watched over the course of the 2008 Olympics and BBC Sport becoming the 10th most visited site in the UK.
Gallop said: "By the end of the Olympics, we want to do for digital media what the coronation did for TV 50 years ago."
"We take our public-service role very seriously. We want to look at what we can do to address the issues around the digital divide," said Gallop.
He added: "We are moving towards a mixed economy where people will consume different content on different platforms, depending on their needs at the time."