Millions of Americans are glued to the tube watching the Olympics from home. But many are also getting their fix of the games on the supersmall screen — cell phones.
Viewers in the U.S. and around the world are tuning in to their portable devices for real-time results, live coverage of events and on-demand video, as well as alerts that can be sent to users' handsets to prompt them to tune in. The features are available through NBC's mobile Web site for the Beijing Olympics.
But will the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat look the same on a pocket-size screen?
Kent German, a senior editor for CNET.com who has been watching Olympic events on his phone, says it depends on the cell phone you use and the type of footage you're watching.
Broadcast-quality Olympics programming routed to a cell phone will have better image quality but isn't available on as many phones, because the only carriers that offer it are AT&T and Verizon. On the other hand, streaming video "as a rule is pretty grainy," German says. "It's nothing you'd want to watch for a long time."
The broadcast-quality service costs about $15 per month and is available only in select cities. Streaming video typically costs around $10 per month and is available on most cell phones.
The array of cell phone coverage for the Beijing Olympics is much broader than it was two years ago during the Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. For the 2006 Games, NBC offered a more limited diet of daily highlights through a partnership with MobiTV of Emeryville, Calif., which provides TV programming for cell phones and PDAs. MobiTV is also helping provide mobile TV coverage for the Beijing games.
So far, NBC Sports says its mobile Web site has generated nearly 1.6 million unique users for the first four days of the Beijing Olympics and 7.4 million page views. That's a sizable increase from Turin: The mobile site for the 2006 Summer Games had 195,000 unique users and 1.1 million page views for the entirety of those Olympics.
Most U.S. viewers seem to be using cell phones to supplement TV coverage of the games at home, says Rex Chien, an analyst for Nielsen Mobile. That way, they can check on their favorite events when they are away, he explains.
The most popular programming is likely to be the "high-profile, short events" including gymnastics, swimming and diving, as well as track and field, according to Nielsen. People are also using cell phones to check on results, medal counts and TV viewing schedules.
"The Olympics are a landmark moment for growth in the mobile TV space," Chien says. With global interest in the games, cell phone companies are seizing the opportunity to sell mobile television services to their customers. Most carriers offer the ability to pay as you go on a month-to-month basis, and some offer a trial period.
NBC Universal, which has the broadcasting rights for the Olympics, plans to present a whopping 3,600 hours of coverage through TV, cable and its mobile Web site.
NBC's Olympics site features something called NBCOlympics2Go, which provides a constant stream of coverage drawn from NBC, CNBC, MSNBC and USA programming that is only available to AT&T customers for a monthly charge.
MobiTV offers streaming service for AT&T customers who sign up for NBCOlympics2Go. Most phones on the AT&T, Sprint or Alltell cellular networks are pre-loaded with MobiTV; it simply needs to be activated.
Verizon Wireless customers can consult an online program guide for the broadcast-quality Olympic offerings or for streaming videos.
MobiTV's Jay Hinman says live events historically have "helped us increase our tune-in by a significant amount." Hinman, director of carrier marketing, adds that the 12-hour time difference with Beijing will also be a "catalyst" for people to turn to mobile TV.
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