With the games in Sochi just days away, CBC has announced its digital coverage of the 2014 Winter Olympics including a responsive website, mobile app and a second screen experience called Primetime Plus.
Every hour of televised coverage on CBC, TSN, TSN2, Sportsnet and Sportsnet One will be available via livestream on Cbc.ca/olympics. The site will also host viewing and competition schedules, news and videos from the games. The website will also host The Olympic Feed, a live blog featuring news and social media highlights, as well as various webcasts featuring data overlays with additional information.
In addition to streaming live coverage on mobile devices, the CBC Olympic Games app available on iOS, Android and Windows 8, allows viewers to set alerts for events, research athletes and check the medal count. During Olympic Primetime, daily on CBC throughout the games, app users will be able to access a second screen experience called Primetime Plus and interact with the show through live polls, as well as photo and caption contests. This will be the first Winter Olympics Canadians will be able to livestream all the events on their smartphones or tablets, according to a CBC release.
Digital coverage of the 2012 games in London by CTV proved popular with Canadians. A report from midway through the event said that CTV’s digital platforms had attracted 90 million page views, with 61% of the traffic coming from mobile devices.
Correction: This article previously stated that this was the first time live streaming was available in Canada for the Olympics. CTV offered livestreaming at both the 2010 and 2012 games. This will be the first Winter Olympics Canadians will be able to livestream all the events on their smartphones or tablets. We regret the error.
CBC is not the first to stream live coverage in Canada on mobile devices. CTV did it across all their mobile apps on smartphones and tablets for london 2012.