The explosion in the use of social networking and smartphones in the past four years means the London 2012 Olympics will be the most tweeted, blogged and reported upon event in history.
Ironically, although the approximately 10,500 competitors are
ensconced in the Olympic village behind 17 kilometres of
four-metre-high electric fencing, they have probably never been more
accessible to the public.
For such a carefully orchestrated and commercially controlled
event as the Olympics, the thought of athletes running free and loose
with their views rather than merely appearing at choreographed press
conferences is anathema to the International Olympic Committee and
commercial sponsors alike.
The IOC has looked to keep pace with the challenges thrown up by
the social networking phenomenon with initiatives such as a social
media hub that links internet users with athletes.
It has also drawn up guidelines on the use of social media - but
this move is very much a gesture of futility nearly equal to that of
King Canute, when he ordered the waves to retreat from the shore.
Since the Beijing Olympics, the number of Facebook users has
surged to 900 million from just 100 million, while there are over
500-million active users on Twitter, compared to just 6 million in
2008.
Twitter has already claimed its first victim of the 2012 London
Olympics, with Greek triple jumper Paraskevi Papachristou forced to
pack her bags because of a racist tweet.
The uproar caused by her remark about West Nile mosquitoes and the
number of Africans in Greece is yet another indication, if one was
needed, of the ever-increasing power of social media.
Unlike the disgraced Papachristou, British gymnast Louis Smith
waved goodbye to his Twitter followers when he moved into the Olympic
village this week.
"It's important to show the public who we are, but this can
reflect our whole life depending on what happens," he said. "I really
want to put everything I can into this Olympic Games. If that means
not tweeting and staying off Facebook then that's what I need to do."
Australian swimmers Nick D'Arcy and Kenrick Monk have also given
up on social media for the duration of the games, but only after
being banned by the Australian Olympic Committee after posting a
photograph of themselves holding guns on Facebook while in the United
States.
Olympic organizers have even tried to keep details of London's
opening ceremony secret by appealing to rehearsal spectators and
performers not to leak details of the event.
Opening ceremony director Danny Boyle has acknowledged that in the
age of social media, keeping details of the event secret will be
impossible.
The desire for immediate news and information is leading to a sea
change in how fans and athletes alike want to experience large-scale
events such as the Olympics, something broadcasters and sponsors are
acutely aware of.
For the first time ever, American company NBC Universal will live
stream all 3,500 hours of athletic competition to the web.
Even before the advent of social networking and the internet,
investing in the Olympics has been a risky project for broadcasters.
Television rights for the years 2009-12 cost broadcasters 3.91
billion dollars, up from 2.57 billion for 2005-08.
NBC lost over 223 million dollars on the 2010 Vancouver Winter
Olympics and paid 1.18 billion for the US broadcasting rights of
London 2012.
However, it has already booked a record 1 billion in advertising
sales and says digital sales in 2012 increased to 60 million dollars,
a 300-per-cent increase on 2008 with capacity for further growth. Its
total ad sales for the London 2012 are 150 million dollars higher
than Beijing.
"The proliferation of our digital, mobile and tablet Olympic
content, including the decision to live stream all sporting events,
played a vital role in reaching this extraordinary milestone," Mark
Lazarus, chairman of NBC Sports Group, told the Financial Times.
