Date:11/08/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/08/11/stories/2008081166091400.htm

National

You can ‘Net’ the Olympics for video views

Anand Parthasarathy

Many Internet sites offer live results

IOC teams with YouTube to reach 200 million viewers including those in India
These countries can view at least 3 hours of video clips of events daily

BANGALORE: The ongoing Olympic Games have breached a new barrier of infotainment sharing: The Internet for the first time is making it possible for millions of users worldwide to access rich video content of the sporting highlights.

With Net access challenging TV access in many geographies, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has beefed up its own website for comprehensive, minute by minute coverage ( http://www.olympic.org) and also teamed with the popular video sharing site YouTube. It has made it possible for fans in 77 countries, including India, where there are no deals to distribute digital video, to view at least 3 hours of video clips from the events everyday. ( http://www.youtube.com/beijing2008). The site is also linked from IOC’s home page. This is expected to reach 200 million viewers world wide.

The Beijing Olympic Committee has created its own English language web resource where it posts results almost in real time. (http://en.beijing2008.cn/). A button on the right hand side offers a link to the YouTube video site. Unless you live in the home turf of broadcasters such as NBC (U.S.) or BBC (U.K.), you wont be able to access much of the video live. But Wired magazine has located some ‘unofficial’ sites which offer live video from the games. One of the resources cited is “It’s Game Time” (http://itsgametime.tv/OlympicsLive.html).