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(Photo credit: Xu Jiajun/Xinhua)

The 2008 Beijing Olympics has been a huge milestone for the history of the international games: this year had the most online broadcast of the Summer Games ever. Olympic events have been shown on the web but never to this extent, making this year’s the first truly online Olympics ever.

And how well did NBC pull off the challenging multiplatform launch? Based on the ratings alone, it seems that it was a success, thanks in part to online video streaming.

Video Streaming Bumps Up Ratings

According to the Wall Street Journal, an average of 24.1 million viewers watched last Saturday night’s broadcast plus 4.8 million people watched 3.1 million video streams on the same day, “more than four times the peak number of daily streams during 2006′s winter Games in Torino, Italy.”

Overall, this year’s Summer Games have enjoyed higher ratings than back in 2004 and 1998. But as the article states, about 90% of the viewing is done with a television, not streaming. Neil Pilson, a sports media consultant who worked on broadcasting rights with the International Olympic Committee is quoted as saying, “The streaming will not diminish the ratings… It encourages viewers and provides them with information. There will be no dilution or fragmentation of the national audience.”

Pilson is right. Marketing the mere availability of streaming has helped establish the Summer Games’ presence on the web. And allowing viewers to catch up on what they’ve missed helps maintain their interest in the events.

However, studies show that online time has been cutting down TV viewing for some time now. And with bandwidth increasing among American households and with better smartphones that are capable of decent streaming, it seems that TV has an upcoming rival on its hands. But the networks are not placing video streaming at the top of its priorities.

Piracy: Overblown Issue?

As the recording industry and Hollywood struggled with illegal mp3 file sharing and pirated videos of theatrical releases, NBC and affiliates are fighting for exclusive rights to broadcast the Olympics online. It’s a challenge, of course, when the entire Olympics amounts to about 3,600 hours of footage. And it’s a big, bad Internet out there.

But is piracy that big of a problem? Some consumers blame the poor content that is being marketed to them, and with higher prices at that. They might have a point. Even though this summer’s critically acclaimed The Dark Knight surely had its share of copyright violations, it is still doing remarkably well. The film has topped the box office for four weeks straight, and it has already surpassed Shrek 2 for the third-highest grossing film of all time. Compelling content matters. The 24 million viewers who tuned in this past Saturday had the rewarding experience of watching media darling Michael Phelps make Olympic gold.

What to Learn from This Year’s Online Summer Games

So is the problem content or piracy? The answer to this problem might lie in smart online marketing. Using a multimedia approach to marketing your product or service is a great way to drum up interest. And a little piracy can actually work in your favor. Think about it. All movie studios now issue a standard website with streaming trailers for each major Hollywood release. Do you think they’re all that upset if some everyday Joe uploads a pirated video of their trailers and clips on YouTube? And they didn’t even have to hire interns!

And even though the Internet is not replacing television viewing (which will continue to have bigger screens and better seating for the foreseeable future), it is still a good idea to continue online expansion. NBC Universal already knows this and is working on optimizing video streaming for mobile web devices.

And there’s a good bet that by the time we see the Summer Games again in four years from now, consumers will be using even more broadband and the streaming technology will probably be superb. How will online marketers respond? Do you think the old stand-bys (video commercials for the web, banner ads) will continue to dominate web-based marketing? Or will there be messier, more technologically innovative media that will challenge our veteran formats?