Multiscreen Adoption – Who’s in Control?

The Olympic ceremonies have come and gone; medals have been won, and the live-streamed online content at NBCOlympics.com is up and running. Although the Opening Ceremonies were shown on a tape delay, much to the chagrin of the Twittersphere, they were the most-watched opening ceremonies of any Olympics drawing 40.7 million viewers.

A likely cause of this is the use of multi-screens and social media, particularly while watching television. Television isn’t necessarily being phased out with the outbreak of digital technologies and devices. If anything, it’s being strengthened when leveraged with other media.

While NBC believes that their “strategy of driving people to watch NBC in prime time is working,” I have to wonder if the numbers would have been the same had viewers been given the opportunity to stream the opening ceremonies in real time. Can you really say your strategy is working when you only provided one option for viewing?

There is a place for multiple screen integration alongside television. In the case of the Opening Ceremonies, viewers took control of that opportunity by using their screens simultaneously. But what happens when NBC takes control of all the screens in 2016? How does that change the advertising game?