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I will try to put my assignment makin several entries, sorry in advance for many notifications regarding just one paper.....

"Saying we shouldn't be in broadband is the same as saying we should have stayed in black and white.

BBC Technology provides foundations for BBC Sport'sdelivery of Olympic content by TV and Internet. BBC Technology's Broadcast Design & Build, Media Communications and Internet Solutions will design and build studio and production facilities in Athens, provision broadcast communication networks and expand the Internet delivery infrastructure for online coverage of the Olympic Games

The big part of the content is appealing to world wide audiences, however, the section “Team GB” is the most updated and Olympic news with “local hook”. As for the live webcasting area which should be launched in August, it is planned to be restricted British audience, the subscriber-fee payers.

In BBC Statements of Programme Policy 2004/2005 [i], besides the main public broadcaster’s aims to inform, educate and entertain in an independent, impartial and honest manner the BBC. Governors of the BBC agree that objective to grow the reach and usage of bbc.co.uk is one of the main tasks of the time. As they want digitalization of the BBC to be widely supported, the first online coverage will be the the Olympic Games and Paul McCartney's performance at Glastonbury, the most eagerly waited TV coverage. According to the heads of the BBC, corporation hopes to tempt them into pressing the red button to access the most comprehensive interactive sports service it has provided to date. The services would help boost the take-up of broadband in the

as well as preventing users "falling on the wrong side of the digital divide". [ii]

This has led some to discussion whether the BBC should be investing so much in broadcasting on the web, given the limited audience and the added costs.

The interactive service which allows users to select “video highlights” from Wimbledon and Euro 2004 is planned to be pressed ahead with comprehensive live webcasting of the Olympic Games on broadband.[iii] The plan is to feature live streaming from several venues simultaneously, allowing those who are only interested in gymnastics or weightlifting to indulge in hours of coverage, as well as offering "catch up" packages of the day's best action.

Andrew Thompson, BBC's head of development, new media and sports news said that the Olympics coverage will be a vital test, both technically and in terms of how viewers respond. "We need to work out what people want to use broadband for. Whether they want live coverage or highlights, how much information they want alongside it, whether they want contextual information or simply to watch in the corner of the screen while doing other things. There's a big learning curve and broadband opens up all sorts of possibilities".

However, the project faces several challenges. First – internet service providing for “multicasting”. Corporation also has to find efficient distribution model, it plans to do by experimenting with this and other forms of distribution, such as peer-to-peer file sharing, Thompson believes that the corporation can find a solution to one of the great imponderables threatening the evolution of broadband.

The BBC is not permitted to carry advertising or sponsorship on its public services. This keeps them independent of commercial interests and ensures they can be run instead to serve the general public interest. http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/policies/advertising.shtml

So that the IOC broadcasting policy would be accomplished, the BBC faces another technical hurdle which is limiting the broadband streaming to UK users. Not only does this placate rights holders who worry that worldwide internet coverage would damage international TV revenues, but it also means that licence fee payers aren't subsidising overseas viewers.

As it was mentioned before, not only the Game Organizers but also Olympic partners and sponsors such as the Coca-Cola Company and McDonald's during before mentioned period were spending tens of millions of dollars on TV advertising, but almost nothing online. It was also argued before, organizers of Athens 2004 promote noncommercial nature of the games and in the website don’t emphasize the power of businesses related to the Games. I overviewed the websites of 11 TOP sponsors of Athens 2004 to see whether they relate their branding strategies in official websites with the Olympic Games. I looked whether they put Olympic Logo – 5 crossing rings - in the index page of the site. What is more, Coca-Cola Company and Samsung are the presenters of Torch Relay program so I also looked how this status is visible online.

www.Coca-Cola.com The “Welcome to Coca-cola” page offers you to select from the 3 further web-site options Company, World wide or US, and then one of 3 icons in the page leads you to the Coca-Cola Launches New Olympic Torch Relay Website http://www.torchrelay.coca-cola.com/ offers you the sophisticatedly design Torch relay route map-calendar with data about every torch bearer, schedule, images from relay bearing in “real relay moments”, “press kit” with information on Coca-Cola and the Olympic Movement history and audio with Celebrate Around the World - The Coca-Cola song for the Athen's 2004 Olympic Torch Relay.

www.samsung.com offers the greatest online experience live torch relay, photo gallery, games, also presentation on Samsung as “leading the digital” company.

www.kodak.com in the first page offers to “catch the excitement of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games” with an icon with Games and Kodak logos. In the page you are offered to view several “albums”: to take a photographic journey through

Greece

, to view “visual embodiment” of the Olympic motto and spirit, and also see how Kodak technology, products, and services help to stage the world's largest event.

www.atosorigin.com In Atos Origin web site index page visitor is met with an outline “Atos Origin IT systems for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games”, but no Athens 2004 logo is used.

Though this overview doesn’t pretend to be a serious research, I think it shows that most traditional partners of the Games are still questioning the possibilities of cyberspace, at least this is seen from their “cyber face” – official web site. Relating this fact to their role in all Games culture, I would say that established businesses add to the lack of flexibility in all Olympics Culture.

The overview of the Olympic Games culture, marketing history and relations with internet, also the appraisal of the main web sites which will perform during the Athens 2004 games in August lead to several conclusions and present situation appraisals.

First, the internet becomes of greater importance in the whole cultural landscape and as specialists assert, in particular benefit organizations that perform in the global scale. The culture of spreading Olympic Games message in the XXI century proves this, as far as both institutions and businesses are concerned.

Since Olympic Games organizations is a huge complex structure depending on many other public and commercial performers of the sports and entertainment market, the internet use and regulation policy is not flexible and much dependent on established media businesses policies. However, Olympic Games organizers face and estimate the requirements of digital era audience and fulfill them.

As for the internet use for institutional promotion and branding, multimedia technology and entertaining elements, also web site structure improvements note that new communication technologies are considered are the field of growing importance. However, official Olympic web site shows that organization sticks to one-way communication and profitable activities are left solely for commercial partners and supporters to be used.

The established businesses still are the main power in the Olympic Games culture; however, new communication organizations and their know-how constitute the new streams in Games marketing.

At the presence of technological advances which can better fulfill the desirability of satisfaction, “the special aura of the Games is to be maintained” (Milton-Smith, 134), or to say in other words, being entertaining and profitable Olympics Games still should fulfill the mission to be morally inspiring and carry ethical and moral values.

To strengthen the power of the “five rings” Olympic brand in highly competitive global economy is the main challenge for Games’ managers, says J. Milton – Smith. The inventive use of internet affordances can help to create the Games as a unique public market space.

Coming back to the Olympic Games nature, it is a sports event. How new media can influence Games in this sence? History shows, that the popularity of particular sorts of sport dependent on the accessible broadcasting technologies. For instance, football was popular in the roots of TV[iv]. In the future, true value of present investments will be clear also in Games as Sports events. Specialists predict that probably broadband race is a marathon, not a sprint,[v] and probably the future will offer us “newmediatized” program of Games.

Here I also want to notice an ironic side of synergies in the Olympics. All the information regarding Games get through media, this year Organizers speak of 4 billion people TV audience all over the world, not including and of course newspaper readers and radio listeners. The established media, if it didn’t find inventiously profit from new media, even worse, felt strong competition from new names in the market, they simply didn’t support the spread of internet that much. I think that this is was sort of “discrimination” policy: not to write in the papers and speak on the radio about the IOC restrictions on broadcasting in 2000, not to discuss other related issues. That’s why it’s difficult to find any critique for the IOC. This also shows that the IOC promotion machine works quite successfully. The world is charmed by this sports and culture celebration and want to believe in the Olympism.

[i] http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/statements2004/docs/introduction.htm

[ii] Gibson, 2004

[iii] Gibson, 2004

[iv] TV when a couple struggling boxers were the easier to shoot and show with one camera and football wouldn’t make such an impression as it does when several cameras, slow motion and close-ups and elements like that are available.

[v] Gibson, 2004

20. Williams, M. IOC tests online broadcasting of Olympic Games February, 2002 See: www.pcworldmalta.com/news/2002/Feb/151.htm