I am a big fan of Michael Geist…. he seems to be the only one really looking out for our rights as Canadian members of the digital community. He has sounded the alarm on one very interesting case of Bell Canada throttling DSL connections. I started to think about this …. why would ma’Bell want to throttle connections …..and why now   From where I stand they have absolutely nothing to gain from stopping torrents. What if this move was something more insidious, something that they had everything to gain? What if this is a play that surrounds the olympics … the last bastion of open competition? I had mentioned previously that NBC is going to have the most kick ass offering for the olympics.  2200 hours of full HD coverage of all sports. Presented to you on your desktop. Watchable when you want.  Would that give Bell the incentive to cap DSL? Well I guess it would if they had interest in a TV station that was presenting the olympics …… oh wait they do ….What if this play was nothing more then the first steps in making sure you turned to CTV to watch the next olympics? While CBC still has the rights for this olympics …the next ones belong to CTV …which is conveniently owned by Bell. So knowing that there is going to be a loss of revenue thru Canadian channels and that more people will watch the online coverage how can we ensure that people watch our ads on our TV stations. After spending 210 million on the rights I would have to assume that every eyeball will count. So in preparing for the sale of next olympic sponsors they want to be sure that there is going to be good data to show advertisers how many people watch the coverage on TV. So it was very easy for the sale of this years olympic advertising. Here is what people did, here is what they watched , here is the growth over the last events.

 Salt Lake City 

Global consumption of the Winter Olympics reached record levels. In the USA each of the 187 million people who tuned into the event, watched on average 29 hours over the two weeks – astonishing considering the choices available to American viewers. In Norway (29 hours), Finland (22 hours) and Canada (19 hours), consumption was also huge, made more impressive by the fact that the audience reach in these countries was in the region of 95% of the population – almost every person in those countries spent most of their television time watching the Olympics in the two weeks. 

 

Salt Lake City  

Canadians were treated to almost 700 hours of Salt Lake coverage, equating to 41 hours of Winter Games broadcasting every day of the Games on three channels, more than anywhere else in the Northern Hemisphere. A decision by the broadcasters to show this much coverage was vindicated by a very successful Games for the Canadian Olympic team and record television audiences. Canada’s thrilling victory over the US in the Men’s Ice Hockey Final on the final day of the Games, which attracted a peak audience of 10.5 million viewers and a massive 36 average rating was the all time highest  television audience for a single programme in Canada. 

 

Athens 

In Canada, the Athens 2004 Olympic Games broadcast was a great success as viewer hours exceeded those from Sydney 2000 by 7%, establishing a new record for summer Olympic Games.  

 

Torino

Torino 2006 Olympic Winter Games coverage in Canada was extensive,with broadcasters CBC,TSN and RDS offering a combined total of 557 hours of programming. The experience of the Games was eagerly anticipated,with each television viewer in Canada consuming more than 11 hours of coverage.   

 

 

All facts and figures provided by the olympic website.

 

So now what happens when this years stats come out and they indicate that a overwhelming number of Canadains watched online live coverage on NBC.com? How does that help the Ad sales? If I was an advertiser I would want to find out how I get on NBC.com. So could this be the first steps of ensuring that your audience wants to watch on TV? Providing you with the data you need to sell adds at a premium?  Could this throttling be nothing more then an ad revenue play under the guise of stopping file sharing? I guess this is the long tail problem of convergence.  As the largest (I think) provider of internet connectivity in Canada this gives them the power to ensure that people don’t find the online experience as fulfilling as watching your good old TV feed. I guess we will have to wait and see the stats on the coverage that NBC is going to deliver. Will the Canadian viewership rise as in the past or will it go online? I know that I will be watching all my coverage on NBC’s online coverage. Sorry CBC … you just aren’t flexible enough for my lifestyle.  CheersScott  ÂÂ

    

   

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