2.      Athens 2004: Olympics online?

After overviewing the IOC marketing policy and the first stages of relationship between Olympics and world wide web and I want to focus on the present “pre-Athens 2004” situation in the field of new media. As M.de Moragas Spa noticed in his research in 2001, after the big effort was necessary for starting new regulations in broadcasting media as well as own communicational proposals on the internet. The scholar claimed that new big communication groups will strive for new means of exclusivity in global scale and new ways of concentration will be determined[i].  I would add that in the main mission and visions of the Organizers clear policy on the internet is not expressed. We can estimate the trends by examining the main web sites for Athens 2004. First of all I’ll speak of the official web site www.Athens2004.com. The NBC site www.NBCOlympics.com will be overviewed as the most visited site during last Games. BBC sports promises advanced performance with the reach regulation put on. By examining how official site uses internet technology and what novelties are promised to be presented by other media – NBC and BBC I will try to name the main trends of internet use in official Games Organizers communication strategy and also in the internet affordances use by media businesses with TV as the main source of revenue. What is important to remind here, that many actors from communications service are involved in the Games with aim of testing their services and promoting themselves as leaders in innovation.  

3. 1. The Official Web Site: www.Athens2004.com

3.1. 1. The web site creators

The web site www.Athens2004.com is the official website of the ATHENS 2004 Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games (ATHENS 2004). The Vignette Corp.) were chosen to power the event’s official site. According to Vignette’s press release issued in April 2004 [ii], in cooperation with local partner Greek Geeks, Vignette’s first aim is to handle a large amount of various forms information and intense peaks of traffic. The task for corporation also is to provide easy to use platform for non-technical personnel at the Athens 2004 Communications Office to quickly and easily update the site with various types of content such as video, images and XML files in automated and cost-efficient ways. In the whole Athens 2004 Organizational chart[iii] staff responsible for information and press operations, also communication, culture and PR are directly accountable for the President  what proves the importance of these departments in the whole organization structure and culture on the whole.

3.1.2. Audience of the web site

According to Vignette and web site data, the site was then attracting an average of 200,000 page views per day and an average of 1.3 million hits per day. Organizers tell that the site has approximately 200,000 single visitors per month, and these make in excess of 420,000 visits. Obviously the load should have increased as a little more than a month is left until the Games and break the records of Olympic web site visits, as the penetration of internet is increasing. According to the same source, traffic to the site is expected to rise to 100 million page views per day with a flow of 20 million users per day while the Games are being held.

The page seems to be targeted for those interested in official Organizers’ information, reliable (because official) data from the Games and in facts about Olympic Games history, education etc. I would say that journalists are one of the most expected visitors of the site, for instance, one can subscribe to Athens 2004 Press Releases weekly mailing service. It was the only area.where I got sort of feedback from organizers after filling in the registration form. For instance, I also registered so that I could receive the newsletter and/or other educational publications of ATHENS 2004 and Club2K4, but I didn’t get any information later.

3.1.3.      Objectives

Since December 2003, the present Athens 2004 Olympic Games web site has gone online. As AOGOC promises in the press release, “before and during the Olympic and Paralympic Games, the official Athens 2004 website is going to be the most up to date and accurate source of information” [iv].

I would divide the information provided in the pages to: inform about the organizers, the Games in Athens (schedule and services at the games), Olympic Games as cultural phenomena (history, ideology), tourism information, and news of the Games.

Generally it is seems that web site is used to provide information for promotional and branding purposes, also for educational purposes, which also means spreading Olympic ideas and gaining support for them. What is different from other sports’ organizations web sites, there are no links to main game sponsors or some online shops as it would be in previous sites. The directly linked commercial activities are ticketing information (if we compare this to let’s say European football championship, www.euro2004.com web site is full sponsors’ links). I think this represents the promotion of Olympics’ “decommercialization” policy.

The site is accessible in 3 languages: English, French and Greek, what organizers also present as the improvement of the web site accessibility compared to previous sites.

As for the accessibility to the website and fulfilling the objective of “public” nature, the importance of Web accessibility was highlighted in court to the Olympic movement after Sydney 2000 after a law suit was successfully brought against Sydney organisers for their site www.olympics.com. A private citizen succeeded in court after a ruling that the Olympics portal caused "unjustifiable hardship" in failing to meet accessibility standards. The main issue was that while most people online rely on either Microsoft or Netscape software to navigate, there are more than 25 alternative browsers for people with hearing, visual, physical or cognitive impairment, but the site wasn’t accessible.  Salt Lake City Winter Games organisers also attracted strong criticism for their failure to meet the basic accessibility standards set by Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C). www.athens2004.com targets disabled after a period of intense re-engineering since launching it.

Summing it up, the web site is reasonably structured to reflect the ideals of organizers.

3.1.4.      Overview of content: user agencies?

As Miquel de Moragas Spa noticed, the institutional usage of Internet until 2000 didn’t bring significant changes in the strategies of communication, but further transformation represents fading borders between journalists and documentalists. However, I would say that his words can’t be applied to the official Athens 2004 web site.   

Despite the sophisticated use of internet in terms of design and hyperlinks and multimedia shows, the strict copyright policy makes user able just to send e-cards with Olympic games, download screensavers (what is actually Olympic brand promotion) but there is no space for user freedom.  No any message boards, no discussion spaces, and you have possibility to get the feedback from organizers just after filling the detailed form online[v].

As for the games you can access in the “Playground” section[vi], nicely designed, they don’t provide user with exciting experience, games like “Olympic maze”, and the hidden crossword” seem to be devoted for a really young audience. You couldn’t compare them to the interactivity of sponsors’s offered games (e.g. in Samsung web site) or Sony Playstation 2 game “Athens 2004”.  So in the field of interactivity there is no competition with the commercial partners, also this shows one – way communication policy of organizers.  

The organizers are especially proud of “greater functionality and ease of use in page browsing”, the presentation of main information in a “comprehensive and cohesive way”, internal "advertising" which is used to “promote areas of the website with relative content”, "Olympic Firsts" feature area, where users can be informed about all the fascinating facts that have taken place for the first time in the preparations for the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games etc., also special area called Youth 2004 dedicated in the Olympic education of young audiences, the supply of such downloads as screensavers, wallpapers and e-cards that are “compatible to the look and feel of the Athens 2004 image and Identity, and be informed about the Athens 2004 official products and places of purchase”.

3.1. 5. The promised performance during Olympics

“Experience every minute of the Games as if you were actually there” invites the subtitle of the press release on the “Greece’s largest on-line project”, the official website for the Athens 2004 Olympic Games, is prepared to provide yet another information technology innovation via its capacity to provide visitors with real-time data and results, covering every facet of the Games with immediacy and accuracy.
Press releases by sport, preview and summation of the days events, announcements; photos of events taking place in the Olympic Venues; Competition Schedule; Start lists; Team Rosters; Athletes Bios, Team Officials and Judges; Live Results; World records set and comparisons to previous Games’ records; World rankings of Athletes and/or National Teams (depending on Individual or Team Sports); Statistics; Athlete statements and interviews.

The trend to provide journalists and sport fans in official big Sport events web sites will continued but it would say that the model and scope of performance is not that different from would be web sites of other International events, like www.iaaf.org – the web site of International Association of Athletics Federations in August 2003 during World Athletics Championship.

However, here we should mark the potential of cyberspace to shift the obstacles of real space. And for the journalist, there’s no need to be physically in the place. In this sense being in Olympics means added; the element of participation; “human face” of the news. But for facts, both accredited to Olympics journalists and audience of fans have the same access to the sources (I don’t mean equal access to the public use of the material; copyright policy is another question).

So, the technological expertise and know-how of the Athens 2004 official website staff and their partners, will provide visitors with the opportunity to be informed, and constantly updated through an interlinked data framework – these claims are true.

And what about the rising audience’s requirements for participatory experience?   In the sense that you can follow the badminton results while TV broadcasters and news portals focus on basketball – yes, but I wouldn’t call it inventive and worth the gold at the presence of internet affordances.  

3.1.6. Restrictions and regulations

I would emphasize quite a strict copy right policy of the Organizers regarding The Olympic Emblem, “it is illegal to use any of the trademarks or service marks or other intellectual property accessible through the site for any purpose other than the purpose for which such material is made available by ATHENS 2004”[vii]. If you want hyperlink to Athens 2004 site, you have to send a request letter to the Games Internet department. I would say that this represents a part of Olympics branding policy and means the wish Olympic logo to be strictly related just to Organizers’ chosen organizations.   

3.2.      www.NBCOlympics.com: sophisticated multimedia from the main broadcaster

3.2.1. Web site creators

The website is the NBC Universal networks' Olympic online platform for the 2004 Athens Olympic Games. NBC Olympics and Internet Broadcasting Systems, Inc. (IBS) are the main participating parts. NBC holds the rights to the Olympic Games through 2012, which include Athens in 2004, Torino, Italy in 2006, Beijing in 2008, Vancouver 2010 and the Summer Games of 2012. IBS is the network of local Web Channels -- web sites that combine the local content of the dominant TV station in a top market with a broad range of Web services, backed by extensive promotion from the station. In the “O-zone” section more than 200 NBC Affiliated Stations will participate.  

3.2.2. Audience

The emphasis on the U.S. Olympic team participation and such sections as “O-zone”, also the vocabulary (e.g. all the firsts and onlys are mentioned within the U.S.)  shows that the web site is targeted mainly for the U.S. audience. The site becomes one of the most trafficked sports sites during the games thanks to the high level of access to the internet in the U.S., like during the Salt Lake 2002 Games set a single-day record with 2.4 million visitors the day of the ladies figure skating final.

3.2.3. Objectives of web site creators

According to the NBC heads, NBCOlympics.com has established itself as the number one Internet destination and will seek to remain. I would call the content of the web site “infotainment”. The web site will provide with the latest news, live results, analysis of the games and television guide as it would be during previous Games, and for Athens 2004 is bolstered by the addition of competition video highlights and localized “O-Zone” content from NBC affiliates. This form of information is supposed to attract audience’s needs and to be profitable.

From the interview with Rex Sorgatz, interactive director for IBS, you ca judge, that online broadcasting is not even the objective of NBC “real-time results, multimedia integration that complements television, and getting the affiliates involved”[viii] – these were named as the tasks for web site creators.

3.2.4. The use of internet affordances

The “video highlights” section is called supposed to be the biggest novelty. The section “Inside The Sport” is interactive Flash application, featuring video, audio and photos, rules, history, “fun facts” and more of each of the Games' sports. The internet is used really creatively; the way information is provided and the content of the chapter also reflects another businesses tendency: to attract the various groups of consumers, like women, children who are not the usual community of fans.

In the “O-zone” section which will provide with localized coverage of the Olympic stories (e.g., with emphasis on hometown sport celebrities) more than 200 NBC Affiliated Stations will participate. 

3.2. 5. Advertising

The presenting sponsor of nbcolympics.com is SBC, other advertisers include AT&T Wireless, General Electric, General Motors, The Home Depot, Samsung, Sony Electronics Inc., and Tylenol® 8 Hour. Businesses have the opportunity to advertise on both the national and local level. Mainly the companies which deal with technologies.Only Samsung from the TOP supporters advertise in the web site.

3.2.6. Connection with TV

As I already mentioned in the writing, U.S. NBC is the main IOC broadcasting partner. They promise “the most in-depth Olympic broadcast in history is coming Aug. 11-29 to the NBC Universal networks:  action from every sport contested in Athens,  unprecedented 24-hours-per-day broadcast,  more than 1,200 hours of coverage. Even the inviting message of the web site shows its close connection to the TV.

To follow the grid of the NBC Universal networks (NBC, MSNBC, CNBC, USA, Bravo, Telemundo, HDTV) that will broadcast Athens 2004, one can see that it is related to the whole broadcaster marketing strategy and the schedule of programs overlap during the best time for on-air advertising: best time in the morning and prime time in the evening.

However, the slogans including phrase “Olympics online” mean with multimedia interactivity, but mostly as a supplement for TV. “You'll see a lot of promotion back and forth, but the ultimate goal is to expose the strengths of each medium: the drama and clarity of television; the interactivity and personality of the Internet. We wish to create an integrated experience where the viewer feels comfortable slipping between mediums without thinking twice about the transition”[ix].

In this most probably promotional interview there’s no spoken about other good internet characteristics.

So, you are expected to slip from the internet to TV.