Two in three UK viewers will watch Olympics online, study says

Almost two-thirds of UK TV viewers will watch this summer’s Olympic Games online, according to Riverbed Technologies.

Research from the technology company identified the men’s 100m sprint final as the Olympic event most likely to be watched online with an average of 55% of respondents saying they would view it online. The next most popular online event was the men’s diving final (29%), followed by the men’s 100m freestyle swimming (27%).

The study, carried out on behalf of Riverbed and conducted by research company OnePoll, surveyed more than 1,000 people across the UK. It also found that the almost half of UK online Olympic viewers would be unwilling to tolerate delays of over two minutes when streaming services before moving to a different source.

Jim Darragh, senior vice-president and general manager, Stingray Business Unit, at Riverbed said: “Europeans are changing their viewing habits. And global sporting events like Olympic Games often create traffic spikes as people use their PCs, laptops or mobile devices to watch their favorite athletes, get real-time updates on events, and purchase event-related merchandise. Organisations must take extra measures to meet the demand spike created by the Olympics. If they do not, and their websites are not responsive at peak times, then they could see their viewers giving up and choosing to watch the Games through other means instead – that potentially means lost advertising revenue and forgone e-commerce opportunities.”