The 2016 Rio Olympics will be remembered around the globe as the first truly digital Olympics, and the U.S. is part of that: through Aug. 18, viewers in the U.S. had streamed 2.25 billion minutes of live content, more than 750 million minutes ahead of the combined total of all prior Olympics. What's driving the growth? It doesn't hurt that NBC Olympics is streaming every event live (and offering more than 4,500 hours of content online). Also, Rio is only one hour ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. Moreover, it's easier than ever to stream the content via apps, the web, and connected devices. Rick Cordella, SVP/GM, digital media, NBC Sports Group, oversees the digital coverage of the Olympics and spent a few minutes discussing the efforts from his office in the NBC Olympics portion of the IBC in Barra da Tijuca.
How are things going from your perspective now that we are near the end of the 2016 Olympics?
We've been blown away by how many people are streaming and the connected-TV usage overall. We do our projections ahead of the Games, and those are always difficult to put down because you're basing it on things like the audience four years ago in London, which involved a different time zone, and technology has changed a lot. We try to sell to that particular projected impression number. Well, we were off by 40%: we had 40% more impressions to sell than we anticipated. And that's a good sign.
Operationally, things have been working well, That is always a fear when you have so much content. We were doing 40-plus concurrent streams out of the gate, which is a lot for anyone, and then we have 151 distinct feeds during the day that are being put up and taken down with new feeds and new encoders. There are 250 highlights a day being pushed out to VOD, to social, and to our own website. And then there is the original programming that we are creating; we're not only taking in feeds from OBS but pushing out our own content. And lastly, there is the challenge of the editorial staff's job of helping consumers be able to go out and find the content. So I think we actually did a decent job, and it's been better than the previous two Olympics I have been a part of.
So how do you approach managing your team, given that the Internet is limitless in terms of how much content you could create?
We start with streaming every competition live. So, if you're a casual fan who wants to watch Michael Phelps win medals or you are a table-tennis or badminton fan and your sport doesn't get a lot of primetime coverage, you can watch every single second through our application. That's a pretty cool thing to say.
And then we go back and find our bread and butter and focus on that, like women's gymnastics. People fell in love with that team, so we had the Daily Dismount to offer the deeper dive, which was after the live feed of competition [and featured] an expert panel of gymnasts talking about what just happened.
Rick Cordella of NBC Olympics describes the digital consumption via connected devices as an amazing success.
You mention the hardcore fans. What is the challenge of serving both the hardcore fans and the casual fans and making sure everyone gets what they need?
Generally speaking, if you're watching badminton and table tennis, you are probably a hardcore fan, although sometimes there are things like curling that create a fascination and casual fans will come in to watch it. And, overall, OBS does a great job with top-notch announcers on the host feed for those events. The announcers are knowledgeable, they get it; they may not be as American-centric as some of our viewers want, but, in those cases, we can dive in and have a separate announce call. We did that on gymnastics with folks who knew the American participants.
Those hardcore fans don't miss anything, so I am guessing they can also be demanding of the quality.
Absolutely. And I give a lot of credit to the team [at NBC Sports' facility in Stamford, CT], because I haven't heard people complaining about buffering problems or the NBC, you're terrible statements. That just hasn't been a theme at all this year, and we're streaming to a record number of people. For example, I was watching equestrian this morning, and there were 15,000 concurrent users. Those are the hardcore fans who are enjoying their sport in a way they haven't been able to in the past, unless they were there. So I think that's a pretty cool thing, to bring people the sports they love at the highest level of competition.
Do you think streaming lowers the pressure on the primetime show? For example, those equestrian fans can get their fix without having to be relegated to five minutes of primetime highlights.
I think the NBC programming strategy gets some flack here and there, but [NBC Sports Group Chairman] Mark [Lazarus] correctly points out that, if you want to watch something, you can watch it and it's available through the computer. And now it's available through connected-TV devices, and it is easier than ever to get it on your 60-in. flat screen TV.
It's amazing that my kids who are 8 and 12 years old are watching gymnastics in the afternoon on the TV via the Apple TV. And they know where to go and how to find it. Digital is second nature to them.
There's a perception that digital is more attractive to the younger viewers than to older. Do you find the audience skews younger?
The average age is certainly younger, much younger than you see on TV. But there are two things to remember about digital. First, we are downstream from the great production at NBC, and we benefit from what [NBC Olympics Executive Producer] Jim Bell and the primetime folks and the daytime folks are doing. So, when we get the men's basketball games, we get Marv Albert calling the games, and we
Most recent headlines
06/10/2025
France T l visions, France's leading broadcaster, has received the 2025 EBU ...
04/09/2025
Monumental Sports & Entertainment (MSE), in collaboration with Dalet, has been a...
30/08/2025
WASHINGTON The Federal Communications Commission has adopted its FY 2025 Regulatory Fees Order that establishes the regulatory fee rates for the broadcast stati...
29/08/2025
Australian Red Cross and SBS launch training to help workplaces in the fight aga...
29/08/2025
The National Film and Video Foundation (NFVF), an agency of the Department of Sp...
29/08/2025
L3Harris Technologies has concentrated decades of expertise across the entire enterprise to develop affordable and reliable best-of-breed solutions to rapidly c...
29/08/2025
BURBANK, Calif. The CW Network and the Pac-12 Conference have announced a new media rights deal that will extend their broadcast partnership beginning with the ...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK Gracenote has released a new analysis of its global video dataset showing that the number of FAST channels grew nearly 14% from Q1 2025 and 76% since 2...
29/08/2025
SAN JOSE, Calif. Harmonic has announced a series of improvements to its live sports streaming solution that the company said will improve fan engagement, protec...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK and LOS ANGELES Fox Corp. and YouTube TV last night announced a renewal of the full portfolio of Fox networks, including Fox News Channel, Fox Business...
29/08/2025
Budapest, Hungary, August 2025 - The integration of Microsoft Teams Rooms (MTR) with Lightware's Taurus universal matrix switchers delivers a new level of f...
29/08/2025
Frequency, the engine behind many of the world's best-known streaming television channels, today announced it will launch Studio Live, a next-generation uni...
29/08/2025
In an era when AI and cyber resilience are essential, Scality will mark the 10th anniversary of Scality Day on October 16, 2025 in Paris. This flagship global e...
29/08/2025
Disguise's In-House Creative and Technical Teams Pre-Visualised, Programmed and Delivered Content for the Experience, All Powered by EX 3+
Technology solu...
29/08/2025
Disguise will be demonstrating the latest workflows for TV, film and live events on a number of partner booths at the show
Disguise, the industry-leading tech...
29/08/2025
STOCKHOLM, Sweden Accedo will showcase Accedo Compose, its AI agent-powered modular orchestration layer that assists streaming providers in transitioning client...
29/08/2025
LOS ANGELES Cineverse has announced that it is working with Xperi to bring four of its streaming channels to automobiles for the first time as part of the DTS A...
29/08/2025
DALLAS & ATLANTA Gray Media has announced an agreement with the sports streaming service Victory+ to simulcast 17 Dallas Stars NHL games in 15 television market...
29/08/2025
NEW YORK AND CULVER CITY Comcast NBCUniversal and Amazon have announced new and extended distribution agreements that will expand the content available on their...
29/08/2025
FOOTHILL RANCH, Calif. RED Digital Cinema will feature its Cine-Broadcast Module supporting live broadcast workflows during IBC2025, Sept. 12-15, at the RAI Ams...
29/08/2025
29 Aug 2025
Kyivstar Rings Opening Bell at Nasdaq Marking Landmark Listing and ...
29/08/2025
More than half of all NFL games live on Sky for the first timeFriday 29 August 2025
Sky Sports has announced a new three-year deal with the NFL, extending its ...
29/08/2025
Back to All News
RIV4LRIES: The Trailer of the New Series With Samuele Carrino ...
29/08/2025
Get ready for an inspiring and emotional insight into the world of competitive Irish dancing with My Story: Tomi Champion of the World airing on RT 2 this monda...
29/08/2025
RT has today announced that David McCullagh is to be the new presenter of RT Radio 1's flagship Today programme, which airs every weekday at 10am, replaci...
28/08/2025
By Kristin Feeley, Director, Documentary Film & Artist Programs
If you want to tell untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got ...
28/08/2025
Directed by Steven Bognar and Julia Reichert, Sundance Institute-supported Amer...
28/08/2025
Corridos have been a cornerstone of M sica Mexicana for generations, telling stories rooted in everyday life. Now, a new chapter is taking shape: motivational c...
28/08/2025
Los corridos han sido un pilar de la M sica Mexicana durante generaciones, contando historias enraizadas en la vida cotidiana. Ahora, un nuevo cap tulo est tom...
28/08/2025
Earlier this month, we promised our Verano Forever party would bring the heat, a...
28/08/2025
L3Harris will provide the Polish F-16V fleet with the Viper Shield electronic warfare system as part of an upgrade program....
28/08/2025
Bilbao, August 26, 2025 - AgileTV, an international television and video technol...
28/08/2025
Ken Wilkinson is an Emmy Awards nominated New York audio engineer who specialises in production sound mixing for film, commercial, episodic and documentary work...
28/08/2025
NEW YORK FuboTV today announced that it will launch Fubo Sports, a skinny bundle that focuses on sports with a subscription price of $56 monthly....
28/08/2025
NEVADA City, Calif. At IBC2025, Sept. 12-15 at the RAI Amsterdam, Telestream will debut its new Global Ingest strategy, introducing a next-generation ingest arc...
28/08/2025
Dr. Rhoda Bernard Releases Groundbreaking Debut Book on Accessible Arts Educatio...
28/08/2025
TAG Video Systems, the leader in software-based IP end-to-end workflow monitoring, deep probing, and real-time visualization, has named Oliver Gappa as Sales Di...
28/08/2025
AI-based voice enhancement will be among a series of innovations making their IBC 2025 debut on the DHD stand B46 in Hall 8 at the RAI Amsterdam Convention Cent...
28/08/2025
Telef nica Servicios Audiovisuales (TSA), the leading system integrator and service provider in the media sector in Spain, with the support of Appear, the globa...
28/08/2025
To fully immerse sailing fans in the world's biggest offshore yacht race, production company, Optical Media turned to LiveU's On-site Production solutio...
28/08/2025
Working with Calrec on its most recent overhaul, radio and television broadcaster, WNED has migrated to a fully IP infrastructure with multiple Type R consoles,...
28/08/2025
Cleeng, the Subscriber Retention Management (SRM ) inventor, has unveiled Cleeng Pro, the first-ever direct-to-consumer (D2C) subscription management platform t...
28/08/2025
Zixi, the industry leader in live broadcast-quality video over IP, today announced that French media distribution platform OKAST has selected Zixi to enable rel...
28/08/2025
Solution offers a streamlined, speaker-free architecture to optimize integration with premium external loudspeakers and advanced loudness metering
Nixer Pro Au...
28/08/2025
Cinegy, the premier provider of software-defined television technology, has announced a strategic partnership with Vision One Touch Film Production Services L.L...
28/08/2025
Telestream, a global leader in media workflow technologies, will debut its new Global Ingest strategy at IBC2025, introducing a next-generation ingest architect...
28/08/2025
Tier 1 operator selects Broadpeak to power high-performance, unified CDN solution across Norway, Sweden and Finland
Broadpeak, a leader in streaming and moneti...
28/08/2025
Leading video software provider, Synamedia, today announced that 24 Frames Digital, one of India's leading live event streaming service providers, has chose...
28/08/2025
Meet VisualOn at IBC2025: See What's Next in AI-Powered Video Streaming Join VisualOn at IBC2025 and discover how our AI-driven Optimizer and advanced media...
The 2016 Rio Olympics will be remembered around the globe as the first truly digital Olympics, and the U.S. is part of that: through Aug. 18, viewers in the U.S. had streamed 2.25 billion minutes of live content, more than 750 million minutes ahead of the combined total of all prior Olympics. What's driving the growth? It doesn't hurt that NBC Olympics is streaming every event live (and offering more than 4,500 hours of content online). Also, Rio is only one hour ahead of the Eastern Time Zone. Moreover, it's easier than ever to stream the content via apps, the web, and connected devices. Rick Cordella, SVP/GM, digital media, NBC Sports Group, oversees the digital coverage of the Olympics and spent a few minutes discussing the efforts from his office in the NBC Olympics portion of the IBC in Barra da Tijuca. 
