You won't need to be glued to a TV set to watch, or even sit in front of a personal computer, which was the way you had to catch the live stream from Vancouver. This time around, you can check out the action from Sochi on your smartphone or tablet.
Diehards of sports that for the most part have been ignored in prime time will be able to rely on mobile devices to see what's going on as it happens. And if you miss that breathtaking ski jump or biathlon competition you can catch an encore starting at 3 p.m. ET on demand, though in some cases you won't be able to watch a full replay on your phone or tablet until the event is shown to NBC's prime time TV viewers. (Sochi is nine hours ahead of the East Coast U.S. viewer.)
NBC has the exclusive U.S. rights to the Olympic videos — streaming, highlight clips, archiving and video on demand. The digital broadcast feeds will be produced by NBC directly, or come from the host Olympic Broadcasting Service.
To help deliver the Olympics, NBC is partnering with Microsoft on the latter's Windows Azure cloud computing technology. Over the 18-day course of these games, NBC will stream more than 1,000 hours live.
Microsoft's Steve Clayton says you'll be able to see every second of all 98 events if you choose. "Sometimes (TV) networks only show what's most popular," says Clayton, who edits the "Next at Microsoft" blog.
Putting things in perspective, consider that Apple's iPad, which led the ensuing explosion in the tablet market, hadn't reached consumers by the time the Vancouver games commenced in February 2010. By the Summer Olympics in London, all the competition was live-streamed on mobile devices. And video-watching on a tablet was actually two times that of video-watching on a smartphone.
NBC's Winter Olympics app.(Photo: NBC)
You can follow the Sochi games digitally on NBCOlympics.com or on the NBC Sports Live Extra app — available for iOS, Android and Windows Phone devices. The Live Extra app is free and getting a refresh in time for the Olympics. It also covers other sports NBC is involved in, including the NHL, PGA Tour and Triple Crown Horse Racing.
But here's an important point: To access most of the live streams, you'll have to be an authenticated cable, satellite or telco customer — via the TV Everywhere initiative that some media providers have been pushing. For now, when you click on the Sochi section in advance of the games, you can watch spotlighted videos, such as an interview with U.S. Biathlete Tracy Barnes explaining why she gave up her Olympics spot to her twin sister Lanny.
To verify your credentials, go to NBCOlympics.com/LiveExtra on each device you plan to use to watch. You'll be prompted to download the NBC Sports Live app if you haven't already done so, and must sign in with the user name and password issued by your TV provider. (A lengthy Pay TV provider list shows up in the app). NBC says that starting Feb. 6, some cable and telco customers will be verified automatically when they use their devices at home. That would be nice if it works as promised — there were authentication hassles during the London Olympics.
NBC concedes it didn't always make a splash in London serving up the kind of viral video content on its Olympics website that consumers wanted to see, such as when German diver Stephan Feck landed flat on his back during the competition. It will place a bar down the left side of the NBCOlympics.com site that aims to make it easier to find any memorable video highlights (or lowlights) from Russia.
! NBC is al! so producing fresh digital-only programming. One that sounds promising is called Gold Zone, in which NBC plans to whip you around from event to event showing the most popular live action between 7 a.m. and 3 p.m. ET. Think of it as the rough Olympics version of NFL Red Zone, the popular gridiron channel in which you're taken to live feeds of all the football games taking place on a Sunday, just as a team in those games threatens to score. In Gold Zone, you might be taken from a freestyle skiing final to the final moments of a crucial hockey match.
NBC also plans a digital-only Olympic Ice studio show with news and highlights from figure skating events.
While you can watch live action on your phone or tablet, for many people the mobile device will continue to serve as a second screen while you're watching on TV at home. NBC reports that about a third of its viewers who watched the Vancouver Olympics on TV simultaneously accessed Olympics content on another device. By London that figure climbed to 54%. The Sochi games could reach two-thirds.
In addition to its live streaming app, NBC launched a second app that promises to deliver results and show video highlights too. It is designed to be more of a companion to the network's prime time TV broadcast. You can consult TV listings, follow a live blog and more.
NBC Sports executive Rick Cordella says all the streaming in London not only didn't cannibalize TV ratings, but had an inverse effect, with people wanting more. He claims NBC (with Microsoft's help) is up to the task of scaling the high quality multiple concurrent feeds that will make the streaming experience go smoothly in Russia. NBC can handle up to 25 concurrent feeds and deliver speeds up to 5.5 megabits per second, he says.
"What we're seeing here is a rising tide of digital viewership and we're pretty bullish on what we'll do in Soch," he says.
Let the games begin.
Email: ebaig@usatoday.com; Follow@edbaig on Twitter.
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