Winter Olympic Games Coverage – Don’t freeze on Social

The 2022 Winter Olympic Games has been a hot topic recently. With politics a big factor in the conversation, one of the many areas that hasn’t received enough attention is the opportunities that broadcasters and content producers have in terms of boosting engagement with viewers and fans around the world using social media!

In December, Chinese authorities confirmed that all foreign athletes and accredited foreign media will have open internet service in official Olympic venues, giving access to social media platforms that are usually geo-blocked by the Government. As with all global sporting events, the likes of Instagram, WhatsApp, Twitter and Meta (Facebook) amongst others, are anticipated to have an influence on the successful delivery of content and how international viewers interact and engage –the data supports this.

Changing audience

While a massive 28% of the world’s population watched Pyeongchang, it was also the most digitally viewed Winter Olympics ever, with 670 million global online users – a 62% increase in digital viewers compared to Sochi 2014!

Let’s put it into perspective. The Vancouver games saw a broadcast audience of 1.8 billion and only 0.3 billion in online video views. There was an increase to 1.92 billion broadcast audience and 3.2 billion for online views for Pyeongchang! That’s an incredible uplift over eight years.

Unlock your viewers

Social media is the key to unlocking a growing audience. Looking back to 2018, the PyeongChang Olympic Winter Games was the biggest ever Winter Olympics on social media, with over 300 million users engaging with the event and over 1.6 Billion video views.

Take advantage of the many platforms available and engage with the varying users by sharing insightful and fun content. Ask viewers to share their experiences and feature it in your broadcast. With 53% of the spoils, Twitter was the most used platform during the 2018, so make a start there and create a campaign using relevant #s so you can follow the conversation and react accordingly.

Share and engage

Instagram was the go-to platform for the athletes last time around, with 39% of total posts and 82% interactions on the media-based app. Keep up to date with the influencers, including athletes – current and old, pundits and journalists, and share their content. Your viewers will stay captivated as they follow their favourite people on your channel.

There were a combined 277 million interactions on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, so create a reason for your audience to interact with you content. Run polls and competitions on your platforms and feature it during your broadcast. Users will love the opportunity to get involved for a chance to win some Olympic merchandise, or to share their opinion on the latest Olympic event.

Include the audience

The Winter Olympic Games is a time for sports-history to be made, and a chance for broadcasters and content producers to capture those moments from every perspective. It’s more than just a multi-camera view, or opinion from a pundit in the studio. Moments captured and shared on social media is exclusive content, be it behind the scenes video, a direct quote by the athlete on Twitter, or real-time reaction from spectators – it can add value to your sports coverage. As the data suggests, these games are set to be the biggest on social, so use that opportunity to deliver your coverage to a wider audience, boost advertising revenues and create a community of followers.

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To find out how Dizplai can support your broadcast and enhance audience interaction, contact us now to discuss and set up a demo – contact us.