While the Olympics brings about warm memories of years gone by where countries come together to celebrate their individual champions in competitive sporting events, audience viewing has changed dramatically.

What once required attendance for event viewing, consumers throughout the world can now witness the breaking of world records from their home television, their PC or even their mobile device.

David Bauder, an AP writer, shared today NBC’s comments that people using their mobile phones to view video or find information about the Olympics have been experimenting with this technology for quite some time.

The Olympics has actually served as a sort of research lab for NBC Universal (News - Alert) in order to track the adoption of new media technology. The company has made content available online, through video on demand and through cell phones, in addition to traditional television since the opening ceremony last Friday night.

According to NBC, the number of individuals requesting Olympic content over their phones is still relatively small at 494,506 on Sunday, and 476,062 on Monday. On the other hand, NBC executives claimed to be stunned at how many of those people have never used the phones for this purpose in the past.

"To some extent, the Olympics are beginning to influence how people use new technology," said Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal, in Bauder’s report.

Television is still by far the preferred format for Olympic game viewing. There were an estimated 107 million people that viewed the Olympics on Sunday for at least a few minutes and 95 percent of those watched it on their TV.

According to Wurtzel, it has become a communal event that the country as a whole has enjoyed sharing. This is considered a rarity in this day of media fractionalization.

U.S. citizens downloaded some 1.7 million video streams of Monday’s swimming relay where the U.S. team came from behind to beat France, keeping Michael Phelp’s gold medal streak very much alive. Wurtzel also shared that 1.5 million video streams were e-mailed from one person to another.

While NBC has worried in the past that airing many of the events on cable outlets would take interest away from prime-time – where the network earns the majority of its advertising revenue – the opposite appears to be true.

 

The attention in the digital world appears to only drive more viewership to the network, generating a great return on the network’s investment in the games.