As the world tuned into the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, it may be worth noting that the way we “watch” such spectacular events has been profoundly transformed by technology over the decades.For more information, visit: http://comigo.com/Blog/Post/10

1. Sochi 2014 - How We Transformed from just “Watching” the
Winter Olympics to ‘Experiencing’ Them

2. •
As the world tuned into the Sochi 2014 Winter
Olympics, it may be worth noting that the way we
“watch” such spectacular events has been
profoundly transformed by technology over the
decades. Rather than just tuning in to watch, the
TV audience experienced the games, in a much
more exciting, more immediate and more
meaningful way.
•
With exciting and completely accessible interactive
and ground-breaking personal and social
networking capabilities, viewers could not only
watch the events that truly interested them; they
could record other events, broadcast a different
venue on a different screen, and exchange
comments and opinions with friends in real-time
via Facebook and Twitter apps.

3. •
A slew of technological advances have
revolutionized the Olympics over the decades.
Most extensive of these – and the one with
perhaps the most impact for fans – have been
improvements in broadcast technology, bringing
the games from a stadium possibly thousands of
kilometers away right into our living rooms.
•
Smart engaging features have not just conquered
the TV in our living room, it is now everywhere, on
any device, allowing viewers to do almost anything,
but being on the fields themselves. Viewers could
access YouTube coverage, watching their favorite
teams compete – actually controlling the viewing
experience; rewinding, watching again and again to
highlight and understand specific incidents and
techniques – and share comments directly through
“chat” and “messaging” with their friends as if
they were in the same room with them.

4. •
In recent years, and certainly starting with the
London Olympics, social media has played an
increasingly important role in our Olympic
experience. The games were dubbed the “Twitter
Olympics”, due to the enormous number of realtime tweets reflecting the latest results and out of
the ordinary commentary.
•
Digital and social media coverage of Sochi 2014
brought fans closer to the Winter Games action
than ever before, with both the International
Olympic Committee and the Sochi 2014 Organizing
Committee engaging fans through a variety of
different platforms– web sites, l broadcasts and
social media.

5. •
The popularity of the social sites was a great
evident: the Sochi Games Facebook page had
between 250,000 and 400,000 likes at any one
time. In the first two days of the Games alone,
Olympic.org received as many visitors as during the
entire duration of Vancouver 2010.
•
The official Olympic YouTube channel attracted
more than 600,000 views a day. The IOC
(International Olympic Committee) also has more
than 33 million fans on a variety of social media
platforms, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram
and more.

6. •
Gone are the days when viewers had to wait for
scheduled broadcasts and had to be seated in front
of a TV set. Social networking has become now a
way-of-life, where we can view events “on-the-fly”,
anywhere, anytime and in virtually any situation.
Now fans can get full immediate visual access 24/7
to any events while they are commuting, on a train
– in some cases nowadays, even while flying,
walking the dog, in a restaurant, coffee shop, or at
the gym…

7. •
Taking the concept even further, this year, the Sochi
2014 Olympic Winter Games mobile app, Wireless
Olympic Works (WOW), has turned the world’s
Android devices into mobile sports stations,
providing fans interactive features where they
could be involved with what is happening at the
games at any given moment and share thoughts,
comments, images, and more. Fans used it to
personalize their own Olympic Winter Games
experience planning their viewing to their
preferences.

8. •
All this meant that service providers and
broadcasters were also able to take enormous
advantage of this extremely wide digital access to
the games, and plan their promotional campaigns
accordingly, using targeted messaging and
advertisements- knowing that they would reach
their customers via myriad of media all of which
enhanced the viewer’s enjoyment of the Sochi
2014 Winter Olympics....highlighting the incredibly
diverse ways in which viewers can be engaged and
the endless possibilities and choices a viewer has in
how to enjoy – and experience – events and
entertainment.

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