As a technology guy by trade (and passion) I have been watching with great interest how NBC is telling people they are going to handle the upcoming Beijing Olympics, technologically speaking of course.
Sure, they will have the typical prime time, weekend, etc. coverage on their group of associated channels, broadcast, cable, etc. But the interesting part is what they are planning to do on the Internet. What does this have to do with Disney? I think a lot.
NBC will, for the first time in history, not only do the typical broadcast thing, but they are making huge plans to stream an unprecedented amount of video on their Olympics portal NBCOlympics.com (over 2,200 hours online they claim).
Are you a big fan of Handball, but can't find enough coverage on the other 3,600 hours of cable programming to get your fix? Sit down and boot up your browser, since chances are you can find it online. Or want to replay that cool Judo move from last nights meddle round? Ditto.
Sure, there seem to be a few restrictions. You won't be able to watch the same stuff online at the same time it's on TV. And you can bet it won't be ad free, or any such thing. But I don't think anybody would expect it to be really, unless they were paying for it to come that way.
So the interesting thing of course is that NBC appears to be treating this like a big 'lab' as they call it. When you read that article, you will see lots of questions that folks like Bob Iger, Anne Sweeney, and George Bodenheimer are asking today as well about Disney content online.
You see this fact as well in some of the recent job postings online at disneycareers.com. For instance, Job # 116870 entitled Manager Online Market Research Analyst for Disney Parks & Resorts in Florida has some of the following highlights:
- General Job Summary
This position is responsible for the utilizing industry and secondary research strategies to develop business cases that drive value for the portfolio of websites within the Walt Disney Parks and Resorts Online segment. - Required Skills & Education
- Bachelor’s Degree in Market Research, Marketing, Business, or related quantitative field; MBA preferred.
- 3-5 years market research experience for high volume consumer websites.
- Proven skills with web research tools like ComScore, Hitwise, Nielson, etc.
- Familiarity with web analytics tool such as Omniture, GOOGLE Analytics, Webtrends
Sure, this position is limited right now to the Parks & Resorts area, but my bet is that other positions already exist that look for the same types of information on a much broader level. As the AP article notes, there doesn't currently exist an effective way like Nielsen does for TV to build a composite of the total viewership across all platforms.
Bob Iger and crew have been out in front so far in testing much of the different methods to reach customers using digital media. The streaming of movies, content, etc. online that they have been playing with to date show they are working on many of the same questions.
I am sure all the Diz executives will be paying very CLOSE attention to NBC's success (or failure), as will you and I, too.
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BTW, in the spirit of the 4th of July, if you haven't seen the Muppet's and Battle Hymn of the Elevator, you gotta go check it out at Muppets.com.
It should come up automatically at Disney DxD after the fun Animal intro!
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