NBC's giant media consumption experiment: The 2008 Olympics

NBC Studios, a division of General Electric Co. (NYSE: GE), will be using the upcoming Beijing Olympics as a huge testbed to determine how consumers' appetites for consuming such coverage are changing. In other words, where are all the viewers? Will they be online watching on the web? How about live coverage? How about viewing on your mobile phone? How about tape-delay coverage due to the time difference between the U.S. and China? Will DVRs play a large part in how viewers will see the Summer Olympics this year?

NBC is considering the Beijing Olympics to be a "billion-dollar research lab" that will give it insight into how people are going to consumer Olympic coverage. In a sense, this will prove to the advertising community the value of different forms of advertising across different types of media. It's good to see a major studio get on board with this. As many of us know, online advertising is taking revenue away from radio advertising (and to a degree, television advertising). Knowing exactly how consumers are consuming media is, you know, kind of important these days. Right?

NBC will provide about 3,600 hours of Olympic coverage through its various television networks -- and 2,200 hours of streaming video via NBCOlympics.com as well, in addition to video streaming for mobile phones with high-speed data capability. NBC will also be asking 500 consumers each day throughout the entire 17-day Olympics coverage period detailed questions about how they are consuming Olympics content. By the end of August, NBC's largest media consumption experiment should show some neat results. I look forward to hearing what it came up with.