Interactive Olympics popular, but 3D fails to engage viewers

The BBC says that 17 million people watched 15 minutes or more of its interactive coverage of the Olympic Games. The UK public broadcaster is operating 24 interactive live streams, covering a plethora of events from the games.

The BBC said that the Games are also driving record traffic to its website with 18 million unique visitors in the first week. In the US, NBC has the Olympics rights and said that web traffic is four times that it recorded during the Beijing Games.

The BBC is also trialling 3D coverage of the Games for the first time although the numbers of viewers watching in the new format are extremely modest. Over 20 million viewers watched the men’s 100 meters final for example, but only 66,000 watched it in 3D.