By Lucy Hornby
Half of the respondents in an online survey by marketing
firm Carat China admitted watching the Olympics at work via the
Internet. Internet live streaming or replays of events rose on
weekdays, when work interfered with televised Olympics events.
Television was still the medium of choice for online
respondents, over 90 percent of whom watched the Games on TV,
versus 80 percent who also watched online.
"Consumers have turned to the Internet for Olympic
information in large numbers," said Seth Grossman,
communication planning director for Carat in Shanghai.
China has the most Internet users in the world, although
home connections are often slow or cut off easily.
The 2008 Games are well on their way to becoming the
most-watched in history, reaping record audiences for U.S.
broadcaster NBC, according to the International Olympic
Committee.
Like Chinese, Americans are also watching the Games at
work, although online viewership in the U.S. noticeably peaks
at lunchtime.
A Nielson online survey showed higher numbers accessing
Olympic information online on weekdays than on weekends, with
Yahoo Inc's Olympic site, the favorite, averaging 4.7 million
visitors a day and a site run by NBC, official broadcaster of
the Olympics, averaging 4.3 million visits.
The favorite events for Chinese viewers have been:
- The extravagant opening ceremony attracted 965 million
viewers, mostly on state-run China Central Television, or CCTV.
- A preliminary basketball game between China and the U.S.
enthralled 378 million.
- The men were outscored by the Chinese women's volleyball
team, who captured well over 400 million viewers in each of
their matches against Cuba, the U.S. and Poland.
- Table tennis is widely popular, with the men garnering
478 million viewers in the group final and the women, 443
million.
The figures are based on estimates of all people who
watched all or part of the event from data compiled by CSM
Media Research and Carat.
(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)
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