HAVE you already caught the Olympic fever? I’m sure that you are not alone. The many who cannot make it to Beijing surely must be glued in front of their television to watch the daily live coverage of the greatest sporting event on Earth.

Since its first telecast in 1960, the Olympics has been enjoying a mutually beneficial relationship with TV. The medium has popularised the event to the point that the global audience is now estimated to be in the billions.

Thanks to TV, we have been able to watch live our athletes in action, for example, the national soccer team’s first and only appearance in the Olympics when they took on West Germany at the 1972 Games – and the many other memorable moments, from the thrill of victory to the agony of defeat and controversies, brought right into the living room.

As the appeal of the Olympics continues, broadcasting the event has become a big business. According to reports, the broadcasting rights for Beijing are believed to be generating £850 million (RM5.44 billion), which is about £120 million higher than for the Athens 2004 Games and a six-fold increase from what was paid to show images from the 1984 Games in Los Angeles.

So, it is not surprising that players in the information and communications technology (ICT) industry, in particular Internet services and solutions providers, have made serious bids to get onto the broadcasting bandwagon.

Microsoft, for example, is working with NBC Universal, which holds the rights to the Olympics coverage in the United States, to provide the underlying technology to offer the online presentation of the Games, which will include over 3,000 hours of on-demand video and over 2,200 hours of live coverage from China. This will enable audiences to view events according to their schedules and follow niche sports that may not get TV coverage.

Apart from watching the coverage on TV and the Web, many can keep up-to-date on the latest news through their mobile phone as well.

These advances in broadcast and communications technology simply mean that consumers have more channels to follow and enjoy the Olympics. The online medium, for example, offers viewers a new level of choice and flexibility in Olympics coverage.

And for players in the industry which managed to secure the rights to broadcast, it’s an Olympics gold in their bag!