Internet30.07.2012

Olympics viewers tuning in online

With high interest around the Olympic Games in London, nearly a quarter of the people who intend on watching the event will do so over the Internet, according to new research from think-tank, Ipsos.

The poll of 18,623 respondents in 24 countries finds that almost three quarters (72%) of respondents plan to watch at least some part of the events this year, and viewers intend to watch on television sets (65%), the Internet (23%), their smartphones (6%) and tablets (4%).

In South Africa, three-quarters of respondents plan to watch the Olympic Games, with 72% aiming to watch the games on television, while 15% state they will be watching on the Internet.

Only 6% of South Africans would watch on their mobile phones, whereas 5% state they will watch on tablets.

Almost a fifth (17%) will download an app to watch the games, and 22% say they’ll download an app to keep them updated on the games, Ipsos said.

Global trends

Residents of China are most likely to being watching via less traditional technologies. In fact, nearly the entire respondent base (94%) from China indicated so: 67% will watch on the Internet, 16% on their mobile phones and 11% on a tablet, the research found.

Similarly, majorities in India (89%) will watch via these platforms: 50% online, 24% on phones and 15% on tablets. The countries next in line follow at some distance: South Korea (58% online, mobile and tablet combined), Saudi Arabia (54%) and Turkey (43%).

Less than one in five of those in Belgium (14%), Italy (14%), Germany (15%), Australia (16%) and France (16%) will watch on these less traditional platforms.

One in 20 respondents “strongly agree” they will download a mobile app in order to watch the games live (5%) and to get updates on the Games (5%).

Another one in seven might do so; 15% “somewhat agree” they will download one for watching, while 16% ‘”somewhat agree” they will download one for getting updates.

What they want to see

Global citizens interested in the Olympics reported that the sports they plan to follow most closely are track and field (20%) and soccer (20%), followed by swimming (16%), gymnastics (14%), volleyball (5%), tennis (5%), basketball (4%), boxing (3%) and cycling (2%).

South Africans are most keen on track and field (33%), gymnastics (31%) and swimming (14%).

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