THE EIGHT HOUR DIFFERENCE between the eastern time zone and Sochi, Russia meant many of us who wanted to see Winter Olympics action live had to tune in at work using our PCs, smartphones and tablets.
By most accounts, the CBC ran a splendid Olympics broadcast, on regular TV and digitally. While some quibbled with the ad load on its Apple, Android and Windows smartphone apps, for most viewers, the live streams and video highlights ran seamlessly. I watched many hours of the CBC’s coverage on my Android phone and it worked very well, every single time. Two taps and I was quickly able to watch whatever ski race, bobsled run or hockey game which was playing. Compared to the historically glitchy nature of most live web video and the frustrating authentication or log-in requirements of many other viewing apps, the speed, video quality and reliability of the CBC’s Sochi app was a revelation.
“It’s a pretty simple app,” CBC Sports executive producer Dan Tavares, who oversaw the broadcaster’s digital efforts, told us in an interview this week about the web, tablet and smartphone viewing portals created by Deltatre (a digital media solutions company which also worked with the BBC and NBC on their online Olympics efforts). “We didn’t try to complicate it with a lot of extra stuff… We put a lot of emphasis on getting the user quickly to live streaming because the research told us, obviously, people just really want to watch sports.” We viewers are simply used to our TVs coming on immediately and we expect the same online. Our tolerance for buffering or other delays is quite low.
“Our decision was always to prioritize video – live video, first and foremost – immediate stuff that will waste away if you don’t make it front and center,” added Tavares. “And the last thing we wanted was getting flamed on Twitter how CBC failed because people can’t watch the hockey game on the app. It was a big, big concern for us, and always top of mind that it had to be super-reliable, and it was, so we’re pretty happy.”
In fact the CBC even heard and responded to complaints from users early on – in the two weeks prior to Sochi when the app launched – that there were too many pre-roll ads embedded, and so they decreased their frequency, said Tavares.
User feedback during and since the Games was very positive. As of this writing the app showed a 4.2 out of 5 rating in the Google Play store (with 4,397 of 7,166 raters giving it 5 stars) and a poll done right after Sochi by Toronto firm Solutions Research Group confirms Canadians were very pleased with the CBC’s overall coverage of the Games.
“Sixty-one percent of those polled gave the CBC an A+ or an A on the job they did covering the Olympics while another 20% gave them a B+." – Kaan Yigit, Solutions Research Group
The survey showed that 81% of Canadians paid some attention to the Olympics and 54% said they watched either very or somewhat closely. “We asked people who watched at least some of the coverage to assign a letter grade like in school – A+, A, B+ and so on,” said SRG’s president Kaan Yigit. And “on average, basically they aced it.”
“Sixty-one percent of those polled gave the CBC an A+ or an A on the job they did covering the Olympics while another 20% gave them a B+.
“They achieved slightly higher marks among the 18-34 viewers vs. 25-54,” he added. “We think that's in part due to a seamless, no-strings attached multiplatform delivery that the younger age groups so often demand but so rarely get. No authentication, no registration and generally reliable streaming.”
CBC recorded huge audience numbers online with the broadcaster saying 10.7 million Canadians watched CBC or SRC on their various devices – to the tune of 14 million hours and 636 million page views between February 6-23. Over 2.5 million downloaded the iOS, Android or Windows mobile apps. “Our data is consistent and suggests especially younger age groups were very actively engaging via the app – 20% of the 18-34 age group used an app versus 12% of 50-plus,” added Yigit.
The questions on the CBC Olympics coverage was part of a national survey done by SRG of 806 Canadians who said they followed at least some of the Olympics.
Bearing in mind the Olympics is more akin to the Super Bowl with exciting content many people want to see rightnow, the seamless and stable online and app experiences has gotten many thinking (us, too) that with the many challenges facing the CBC (especially financially with the loss of hundreds of millions in NHL hockey revenue after this season) that digital distribution is the inevitable way the public broadcaster will have to make its content available to Canadians. Continuing to operate hundreds of TV towers to reach rabbit ears that so few Canadians use anymore is too expensive – especially as almost everyone gets online and can choose any content from anywhere.
Former CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein believes the Corp has to make that move soon and told the Senate as much last month. In a written clarification to the Senate, he went even deeper than his comments during his February appearance in front the senators.
“We have always thought of the CBC in terms of broadcasting. If you look at the Broadcasting Act it really has only two components: 1) to provide access to and for all Canadians either as viewers/listeners or providers of content; and 2) to foster and encourage the production of Canadian content,” he wrote. “Now that we are in the digital age access is no longer an issue and the Regulator no longer can control it. Thanks to the internet everyone can have access to anyone or anything, everywhere at any time.”
"Instead concentrate on Canadian content production and distribute its content exclusively over the net. In effect CBC becomes CBCFlix." – Konrad von Finckenstein
It could be time, “at least on the English side, to stop broadcasting,” von Finckenstein added, and “instead concentrate on Canadian content production and distribute its content exclusively over the net. In effect CBC becomes CBCFlix.
“Clearly abandoning traditional broadcasting could entail significant cost savings and of course the CBC would charge for it by way of subscription fee. Whether it would also offer commercials , how many and at what point in time is of course something that may be needed to be worked out.”
Tavares confirmed his bosses are thinking just that and the Olympics “wasn’t seen as a one-off thing. It was seen as a litmus test for a future model, not only for the way we distribute content… but also for a way we work together – how we work in a highly co-ordinated way. It’s a big company with French and English and to be super-candid CBC and Radio-Canada, more often than not, have been two parts of the same company who sometimes work together.
“But definitely with the Olympics, there was – from Hubert all the way down – (the push) that we must work together as one company. This is the new way CBC has to work – efficiently to deliver a strong, seamless product across Canada. I do think that they are looking at it as a potential future, not only from a distribution perspective, but from a content creation perspective, as well.”
The CBC has shown, through Sochi and some of its other digital properties (such as tou.tv) that it can deliver a seamless, entertaining and informative experience for Canadians anywhere on multiple devices. As well, with a substantial parliamentary appropriation (but not enough money to continue in its current structure), no legacy businesses to protect when compared to the other vertically integrated big broadcasting and distribution firms in Canada, the CBC may well be poised to lead new "app-ified" distribution and content creation models in the near future.
