Olympics Buffet Stuffs DirecTV’s Interactive Audience
Olympics on Demand, DRV Scheduler Popular with DBS Subscribers
By Larry Barrett -- Multichannel News, 9/4/2008 12:02:00 PM
More than 1.8 million DirecTV subscribers partook in the satellite service’s free interactive platform and services throughout NBCU’s two-week coverage of the Summer Olympics in Beijing, company officials said Thursday.
DirecTV's Olympics on Demand, Olympic Interactive platform and DVR Scheduler service generated more than 17 million impressions, company officials said Thursday. The most popular features were the interactive Olympic Guide, Medal Count and Today’s Trivia, which included daily news and results from the Olympic Games.
NBCU was the most-viewed programmer on the DirecTV On Demand platform, while more than half of the top 20 downloaded programs were also Olympic-related titles from NBC. The DirecTV VOD service offered a dedicated NBC Olympic channel that showcased more than 500 titles from NBCU, in both standard and high-definition, beginning in July and running through the end of the Games.
NBCU’s coverage of the Beijing Olympics was the most-watched event in U.S. television history.
“Results from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games on the networks of NBCU truly exceeded our expectations and allowed our customers to get a virtual front-row seat to the world’s most popular sporting event,” Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DirecTV Entertainment, said in a statement. “Viewers wanted the freedom to create their own Olympic experience and we are confident that our suite of enhanced features, in partnership with NBC, helped fans to do just that.”
The opening ceremonies ranked as the DVR Scheduler’s most-requested individual program ever scheduled remotely through the service. On Aug. 8, the opening day of the Games, more than half of the recordings scheduled remotely were of NBCU’s telecasts of the Olympic Games.
