TV still dominant platform to watch Olympics
July 17, 2012
TechBargains, a deal aggregation website for electronic products, released its Olympics survey results revealing that social media is expected to play a major role during the Summer 2012 London Olympics with 87 per cent of people saying they will partake in social media or text friends about the Olympic events. While only 9 per cent of respondents plan to buy TVs for the Olympic Games, half say they would watch the Olympics in 3D if they had the right equipment. TV is still the dominant (94 per cent) platform on which people will watch the games, while 46 per cent will watch on laptops, 39 per cent on desktops, 31 per cent on tablets, and 27 per cent on smartphones.
The survey also found that while the overwhelming majority (97 per cent) of people will watch the Olympics at home, one in five will also sneak in viewing at work, 28 per cent will watch it at a restaurant/bar and 4 per cent will watch at school. Additionally, survey respondents said they would watch an average of 6.7 hours of Olympic events during the week and 5.6 hours during the weekend.
“The 2012 Summer London Olympics are introducing the 3D TV experience to sporting events, something that has yet to be done on such a large scale,” said Yung Trang, President and Editor in Chief of TechBargains.com. “While the results indicate that not many people will actually be watching the events via a 3D TV, it’s simply because they don’t have access to the proper entertainment system and not because of a lack of interest. This is also the first Olympic games since social media use has become widespread. Both factors have serious implications for all national and international sports organisations and will dramatically affect the viewer experience.”
The survey found that more people (16 per cent) plan to buy devices to watch the 2012 Summer Olympic Games, compared with 13 per cent for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Additionally, over half of respondents will re-watch events by catching highlights on television and 38 per cent will use a DVR.