The state-owned Chinese sports broadcaster is steaming a record 5,600 hours live from London, including an online re-broadcast of CNTV’s terrestrial feed as well as six to nine online-exclusive live feeds. It’s getting some help with its live streaming from New Jersey-based video platform provider Neulion. Neulion EVP Chris Wagner told me last week that the company is very excited about this unique challenge: “The numbers are staggering,” he said of China’s huge online audience.

And staggering they are: When CNTV streamed the World Cup in 2010, as many as 5.5 million people tuned in simultaneously. That doesn’t just represent the biggest simultaneous audience for a sports live stream ever, it also set a record for P2P live streaming, which CNTV has been using to deal with both bandwidth costs and network reliability issues.

However, for the London Games, CNTV will be augmenting its own P2P live stream with centrally delivered streaming from Neulion to target mobile and tablet viewers as well as desktop users in search of a better-looking HD stream. Neulion is powering an offering called 5+ VIP, which is marketed as a premium take on the Olympics, complete with mobile apps for iOS and Android devices.

“The mobile piece is gonna be pretty significant,” Wagner told me, which is why the company doubled down on that part of the offering. On the iPad, Neulion serves a total of eight different bitrates, up to 2.5 Mbps for its HD stream. iPhone bitrates are ranging from 150kbps to 640kbps, and Android devices will get similar bitrates. On the desktop, Neulion is using Flash to deliver streams with up to 3Mbps.

Neulion’s 5+ VIP offering also comes with DVR-like functionality, the ability to view any scene in slow motion and picture-in-picture features to monitor up to four live feeds at the same time. Neulion built the mobile apps as well as the Flash player experience for CNTV, and it is using its own H.264 encoding software to capture the games. “We’ve got an end-to-end responsibility,” Wagner said about the role his company played in delivering 5+ VIP to consumers.

The question is: Why are Neulion and CNTV investing in this kind of premium offering? First of all, users don’t have to pay for 5+ VIP — yet. Wagner told me that Neulion is using the service to sign up customers, and that it hopes to target these very same customers with future sporting events, which it may eventually charge for. The hope is that as iPad and smartphone ownership grows in China, so does the willingness to pay. “The market is looking for more premium products,” Wagner said.

Also check out our previous coverage:

• Streaming the Olympics: How YouTube and NBC do it
• Streaming the Olympics: How the BBC and Adobe do it

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On digital revenue

paidContent was first to report NBCU’s $25 million in digital revenue for Beijing and that the network was more than doubling that revenue for 2012 to $55.5 million, based on $900 million in overall ad revenue. NBC announced Wednesday that it has passed the $1 billion mark in ad revenue and digital revenue rose with it. Lazarus told me six or seven percent of that is from digital. The new number is more than double that of Bejing, about $60 million, and if it winds up on the higher end, will be nearly triple. It’s small compared to the overall revenue number — but serious.

Lazarus calls it proof that advertisers not only want linear on broadcast and cable, but also online and mobile. The bulk of that is from desktop or laptop; mobile continues to be the least monetized, he added.

On streaming

In previous years, NBC has been both willing to experiment and uncomfortable giving full live access to the kind of events that would be in the prime-time spotlight. NBC offered 2,200 live hours from Beijing and only two events — curling and hockey for Vancouver, about 400 hours. The barrier to watching events that were being offered live in other countries drove Olympics fans crazy. For London 2012, NBC is going all in. I asked Lazarus if that was a decision he inherited or one he made.

“We made those decisions when I got into the role. They had a working plan that was not as ambitious as it sounded. We had a straw-man discussion about how people were consuming media and watching the games — and we made the decision to stream everything live.”

The reasoning? Lazarus explained: “There are a certain number of fans who want the immediacy of watching it live. Since most of it will have to be authenticated or verified, it brings value to our cable and satellite partners.” Plus, he believes “people will still gravitate to our primetime programs.” That’s not just a gut feeling. “All the research we’ve seen and all the trends in the industry show that putting things more out there leads to greater and wider interest.” He expects the live streams to lead to more buzz and energy for primetime, not detract from it.

“The Super Bowl is a good example. It was the biggest digital event with 2 million uniques and 750,000 on concurrently — and also the most watched television show of all time. Of those 2 million uniques, 1.6 million were watching television while having a digital experience.”

On authentication/verification

Why keep most programming on over-the-air NBC behind an authentication wall? The vast majority of NBC viewers watch via cable or satellite operators paying for rentransmission consent.

What about people who don’t pay for broadcast access? Of 114 million television households, Lazarus says roughly 100 million are cable or satellite subscribers. “Maybe 14 million don’t pay,” he added. “When you’re doing 5,500 hours live, if there’s five or 10 percent [of streaming programming] you don’t need to verify, that’s a whole lot of hours.” That would be 250 to 500 hours.

“We also have more Olympic coverage on free TV than ever before ever before –270 hours.” So cordcutters will have some streaming access without doing backflips and those who don’t pay for TV will be able to watch some of the Olympics on their sets.

The time delay made it even more important to Lazarus and company to provide the live streams.

NBCU is pushing all of its primetime Olympics viewing to NBC. The other channels set for multiplexing during the day — NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo — will have their regular programming. “During the day we have a lot of options for people but there’s a lot of content. In prime time, the only place to watch the Olympics will be NBC.” (Well, the only legal place. I’ll bet digital dollars to your digital donuts that some people will spend a lot of time trying to watch through other means.)

Why not offer a digital subscription? “We think the verification process is that form of payment,” Lazarus said. “We don’t think they should pay twice.”

What would he tell peers making similar decisions about whether to go the authentication route?“We all have our own business models. We each have different events we do our own ways. As an industry, we have to push to simplify verification so our customers can consume all this. Let’s make verification easier for the consumer — as an industry.”

On social media

In recent days, NBC has announced partnerships with Twitter, Facebook, Storify and more. I asked if there is any incremental revenue in the Twitter or Facebook deals or is it all about marketing? Lazarus was quick to reply: “Marketing; it’s not a revenue play for us. We’re using them to market and promote the games, to personalize, make a connection. We have a unique opportunity to utilize some of the biggest talents in the world of sports, in some cases, entertainment and news … In a way it’s a personal plea — even though it’s one to many, you sort of feel it’s one to one.”

For Lazarus, it’s all a work in progress:

“This is a grand experiment. This is a billion dollar laboratory. We’re playing with a lot of things for the first time and on this scale.”

On success

How will Lazarus gauge success? “The overall measure for me for success is more than 200 million Americans watch some portion of the Games, which would make it a top five American all-time event.”

He also would like to surpass the Beijing digital assets by 50 percent and on mobile, would like to have a significant number of people use the smartphone and tablet apps.

“Some measure is making all of this technology work together. Looking at total uniques and page views and how many streams, we think we’ve got enough technology… if we’re pushing the limits, that will be a success.”

Was there anything you couldn’t do with digital? “We’re streaming more content, more simultaneious streams than ever before. We’re challenging the technical limits. It’s not about what we couldn’t do. it’s about focusing on delivering.”

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Working with Fingi Inc., Samsung equipped 40 special rooms at the Holiday Inn London Stratford City next to the Olympic Park, integrating the Galaxy S III smartphone phone for a better customer experience as well as creating an revenue generating platform for the hotel.

The solution isn’t the first such collaboration between Samsung and Fingi, which is a Samsung Enterprise Alliance Program partner. The two paired together for a similar solution using the Galaxy S II phone last year at the Aloft Hotel in Bangkok.

• VIPs staying in the specially-equipped London suites can download a free Android app for the Galaxy S III to enable all of the features.
• Travelers can check in or check out on the phone.
• Once in their room, they can control various room features directly from the Galaxy S III: Lighting; air conditioning; and the television.
• After installing the application, the handset also serves as a room key for guests.

Clearly, any modern smartphone with the right software could be used for this solution. But as the official phone of the 2012 games, this is a smart marketing move by Samsung and one I wish they had expanded beyond just 40 rooms. Given that the phone and app can be used for hotel amenities such as in-room dining orders, laundry services and booking other hotel facilities, I’m sure the Holiday Inn wouldn’t mind offering this to a wider audience as well.

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