Fans click on YouTube for real time Olympic updates

It has been two weeks since the Olympics 2012 kicked off to a beautiful display of colour and funfair as the city of London put its best ‘thrilling’ foot forward.

Since then, the world has been treated to hours of a mixture of competitive spirit, endurance, mental and physical fitness from hundreds of contestants.

Sadly, local sports enthusiasts who intended to keep track of the different sports were in for a rude shock since the one television station with rights to air the games did so selectively.

Majority of Kenyans — at least those who do not have access to pay television services and or high-speed Internet — have had to make do with this inconvenience.

As part of what is being referred to as the first “Social Olympics”, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) entered into a partnership with YouTube to set up a channel from which people could watch the events online and in real time.

The online channel came to the rescue of tech savvy Kenyans on Saturday afternoon who used it to stream the 100 metres heats in which the legendary Usain Bolt was participating, since it was not airing on television.

In the partnership, viewers have to their disposal 2,200 hours of action on 10 live high definition feeds distributed across 64 countries in Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.

From the site (www. youtube.com/olympic), visitors can flip between different events as they happen as well as watch replays of those that they missed.

There is also a 24-hour news channel, which includes summaries of the latest results, general reports on different events, and interviews with contestants.

While this English-broadcast channel is available only in countries where digital rights have not already been bought exclusively, the webcast is set to redefine the Olympics with millions having the chance to watch the games on their computers, phones and tablets.

“We first provided clips on our channel on YouTube during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games across the region,” said Timo Lumme, managing director, IOC Television and Marketing.

“Now we will also be able to offer live coverage during London 2012, complementing the excellent coverage provided by our broadcast partners across the world.”