London 2012 ends with a record audience thanks to new digital media

Second screens (tablets, mobile phones and personal computers) have allowed greater interaction with athletes and competitions. For this reason, the audience has been more attracted than ever to live competitions.

The social listening study around the Olympic Games carried out by Fuse, OMD's content unit, has ended with its third edition, configuring a new panorama in the way in which spectators follow the Olympic Games.

From an audience perspective, digital media has helped the Olympics engage global audiences like never before. Young people between the ages of 16 and 34 are the public that has shown the greatest interest in these Games, which has gone from 67% to 71% between the first and second waves of the study. The difference between the male and female audience has been insignificant, 71% correspond to men and 67% to women. A fact that can be associated with the great role that female athletes have had in these Olympics.

Usain Bolt has become the first man in history to win the 100 and 200 meter events in two consecutive Olympic Games, in addition to having also taken victory in the 4×100 in the last two editions with his Jamaican teammates, surpassing in the latter the best world record that they themselves had until then.

Michael Phelps has become probably the best Olympic athlete in the world with 22 medals, of which 18 are gold. Ben Ainslie has secured his fourth gold medal in four different Olympic Games.
In these Olympic Games, consumers have had total control of sporting events. Second screens (tablets, mobile phones and personal computers) have allowed greater interaction with athletes and competitions. For this reason, the audience has been more attracted than ever to live competitions. In figures, 76% of the online monitoring of the Olympics has been carried out through personal computers, 45% through mobile phones and 27% through tablets.

This third report demonstrates the growing impact that games have had. We have also sought to explore trends in media consumption based on sports results and the important role of technologies.

Access here to the full report.