NBCOlympics.com reported that through the first four
days of the Games, users have spent more than 900,000 hours
on the site, visiting more than 43 million pages. adidas,
Ameritrade, A-B, GE, GM, IBM and Visa have joined the site
as Masters Gold Partners (NBC/Quokka Ventures).
InternetNews.com's Beth Cox wrote adidas is "winning its own
version of Olympic gold" through the deal, as adidas not
only has product exclusivity in the sports apparel category,
it "also has a number of branding opportunities" in the
site's masthead and other areas. Cox: "In fact, there's
nary a Nike logo to be found on the site" (InternetNews.com,
9/20). CNBC's Mike Hegedus reported that Quokka Sports is
"hoping that a $30M investment" in NBCOlympics.com "will
payoff not only in gold, but in green as well." Hegedus
called NBCOlympics.com "one of the most detailed sports Web
sites ever [with] 22,000 pages of everything from results to
profiles to 360 degree virtual visits to all the venues."
NBC/Quokka Ventures GM Tom Newell: "A typical sports site
will have 4-5 minutes per visit. We're averaging for
NBCOlympics.com over 15 minutes per user visit." Hegedus:
"Quokka expects to lose between [$5M-$6M] on its production
in this year's Olympics. However, they have signed up and
have been accepted for the 2002 Olympics and they expect to
make a profit in that one" (CNBC, 9/20).
OLIVER STONE, CALL YOUR OFFICE: USA TODAY's Mike Snider
writes that "some Olympic fans are upset at NBC" for
removing their complaints" of NBC's tape-delayed broadcast
"out of cyberspace." User John McColl noticed viewers'
criticisms that were posted on NBC.com following the opening
ceremonies, had "disappeared" by Saturday morning. NBC
President of Research Alan Wurtzel said that the net
"changed its procedure for Web-based comments because its
initial forum became clogged with complaints about the tape
delay." Wurtzel: "We couldn't get anyone to come in and
respond on any other issue" (USA TODAY, 9/21).
YAHOO! A REAL WINNER? Snider adds that while 1% of
visitors to Yahoo! are clicking on the portal's Olympic
section, 13% of visitors to Yahoo! Sports are clicking to
its Olympic area. PC Data reports that 12% of ESPN.com
users visited its Olympic section, while 7.4% of USA
Today.com users visited its Olympic area (USA TODAY, 9/21).
THE ENFORCERS: The WALL STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE's
Jeanette Borzo writes that the IOC has hired French software
and services company Datops and Net Result to "enforce" its
ban of Web sites broadcasting Olympic video. The IOC, NBC
and NetResult all use a database that lists more than 4,000
Internet sites to be monitored for possible violations (WALL
STREET JOURNAL INTERACTIVE, 9/21)....CBC's Web site removed
Olympic audio clips it was carrying "after receiving a not-
so-friendly inquiry from NBC on Monday." CBC Sports Online
Senior Producer Andrew Lundy: "NBC threatened to go to the
IOC and have our access revoked." Weber writes that one
mistake was putting "Live at 55," a five-minute update on
the Games broadcast across Canada on CBC Radio every hour,
up on the Web. In addition, the updates included "brief
audio clips from events" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 9/21).
