Internet and the Olympic Movement

Internet and the Olympic Movement Miquel de Moragas Spà Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona The Centre d’Estudis Olímpics (CEO-UAB) publishes works aimed to facilitate their scientific discussion. The inclusion of this text in this series does no limit future publication by its author who reserves the integrity of his rights. This publication may not be reproduced, neither partially nor totally, without the author’s permission. This paper was presented at the 11th International Association for Sports Information (IASI) World Congress held in Lausanne in May 2001. Ref. WP100 Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 2 To refer to this document you can use the following reference: Moragas Spà, Miquel de (2001): Internet and the Olympic Movement [online article]. Barcelona: Centre d’Estudis Olímpics UAB. [Consulted: dd/mm/yy] <http://olympicstudies.uab.es/pdf/wp100_eng.pdf> [Date of publication: 2001] Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 3 1. Introduction: importance and inequalities in the development of the Internet The introduction of the Internet on a world-wide scale and, in general, the process of digitalisation of communication is set to transform the systems of communication and organisation of institutions, above all in those developing their activity on a world-wide scale. And undoubtedly, this is the case of the Olympic Movement. However, the introduction process of the Internet is at the same time “accelerated” and “contradictory”. It is accelerated because growth is exponential in some regions and in some activities, but it is also contradictory because its introduction on a world-wide scale is very imbalanced and because many institutions offer large resistance to the changes that these technologies impose. For example, in the United States the index of penetration of the Internet in 2001 was calculated as 53.72%, therefore constituting an important market for multiple commercial initiatives and communication applications. In other regions around the world (Africa, Latin America and Asia) penetration rates are, and will continue to be, very limited, creating serious problems of exclusion in technological transformation. Table 1 | People connected to the Internet in the world (1995–2000) 1995 26 million 0.63 % 1996 55 million 1.34 % 1997 101 million 2.47 % 1998 150 million 3.67 % 1999 201 million 4.78 % 2000 407 million 6.71 % 2005 350 million 5.50 % Source: Nua Internet Survey, 2000, www.nua.ie Table 2 | Distribution of Internet users in the world by large regions (1999 and 2000) 1999 (in million) 1999 (%) 2000 (in million) North America 136.86 57.00 % 167.12 Europe 83.35 21.75 % 113.14 Asia 68.9 17.00 % 104.88 South America 10.74 3.00 % 16.45 Africa 2.58 0.75 % 3.11 Middle east 1.90 0.50 % 2.40 304.33 407.1 Source: Nua Internet Survey, 1999, 2000, www.nua.ie Table 3 | Penetration of the Internet in some countries (2000) People (in millions) % over population USA 148.03 53.72 Norway 2.2 49.57 Australia 7.77 40.54 Great Britain 19.47 32.72 Japan 27.06 21.38 Germany 18.0 21.74 Spain 4.6 11.5 Brazil 8.65 5.0 Mexico 2.5 2.49 Senegal 0.30 0.30 Kenya (1999) 0.045 0.16 Nigeria 0.10 0.08 Source: Nua Internet Survey, 1999, 2000, www.nua.ie Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 4 However, these inequalities were not born with the Internet; they have their origin in the large technological and economic inequalities in the modern world. Africa, for example, according to the International Telecommunication Union’s sources, having a population that represents approximately 13% of the world population, has only the 0.1% of computers in the world, with an approximate total number of 1.5 million PCs (50% of them in South Africa) and has only 1.7 telephone lines for every 100 inhabitants, while in Europe this index corresponds to 32%. Table 4. Basic indicators of telecommunication equipment (some countries, 1999) Population (in millions) 1999 GDP per capita (US$) 1998 Lines for 100 inhabitants 1999 PCs for 100 inhabitants 1999 USA 276.22 32’198 66.44 51.05 Great Britain 59.40 21’822 56.72 30.64 Japan 126.51 30’105 55.75 28.69 Germany 82.16 26’214 58.79 29.69 Spain 39.42 14’884 41.81 12.18 Brazil 167.99 4’675 14.87 3.63 Mexico 97.36 4’330 11.22 4.42 Senegal 9.24 520 1.80 1.52 Kenya 29.55 395 1.03 0.42 Nigeria 108.95 551 0.38 0.64 Source: UIT, Indicators, http://www.itu.int/ti These figures reaffirm very relevant data: despite important inequalities in the world, Internet users constitute a large critical mass from the perspective of market and business prospects. The accelerated increase of the number in users in developed countries has aroused the speculative interest of a great many companies striving for hegemony in the sector, losing interest in applications for global development and sustainability of information in the poorest countries in the world. Hence the big effort necessary for a new policy of support for development, which as we will see, will also affect the world of sport and Olympism. 2. Changes in the contents and in the strategies of communication These accelerated changes do not only affect technological aspects, but also the contents and strategies of communication. During its first stage (1995-2000) the institutional usage of the Internet was limited to providing promotional information, without signifying changes in the strategies of communication, and far from it, changes in the organisational forms. But things have changed radically in the last few years. The Internet and the digital transformation of communication demand radical changes in the understanding of information and in the organisation of institutions. The Internet represents a new convergence between the processes of diffusion and production of information. It can be said that the previous borders between journalists and documentalists have tended to fade, in the same way as past borders between social institutions and mass media. This complex and important phenomena can be expressed as a new paradigm of communication in the digital era (see figure 1) Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 5 Figure 1. New paradigm: communication in the digital era 2.1. The important role of new “mediators” in the Internet The Internet era is provoking the creation of a “large digital memory of the world”, or a “large world-wide documentation centre”, accessible on-line and made up of millions of digitised pages, data and images. This “digital memory of the world” will increase within a geometrical rhythm as consequence of one of the basic characteristics of modern communication: digitalisation and the consequent possibility of automatic storage and recuperation of information. The “multiplication” of documents available on the Internet is spectacular. Repository of digital contents New mediators: Portals Search engines Digital newsstands Production Diffusion Free or Toll Production of contents Production Government Business Clubs Universities NGOs On-line media Mass Media (Radio, TV, Press, Cinema) Receptors Mass groups Groups Individuals By age By gender Professionals Technicians Interactivity / Community Consumption Consumption Direct access Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 6 Table 5 | Evolution of hosts on the Internet 1981 213 1987 28,174 1991 617,000 1992 1,136,000 1998 36,739,000 1999 56,218,000 2000 (July) 93,047,785 Source: Network Wizard, The Internet Domain Survey. If we search for popular subjects on the Internet such as “Sport”, “Olympics” or “Olympism”, the result is lists with hundreds of thousands of references. Table 6 | “Olympic”, “Olympics” and “Olympism” in some search engines. Pages located (1998 and 2000) Hotbot 1998 Hotbot 2000 Infoseek 1998 Infoseek 2000 Excite 1998 Excite 2000 Altavista 1998 Altavista 2000 Olympic 375,524 1,850,800 228,479 376,091 129,76 6 730,469 949,210 784,780 Olympics 280,018 1,763,300 134,974 281,574 80,140 730,469 566,690 454,035 Olympism 514 1,200 209 569 180 80 479 1,213 Source: Centre d’Estudis Olímpics i de l’Esport, UAB. This multiplication of the information generates a new need: to dispose of new believable ways of mediation. Hence previous search engines have transformed in “portals” or “mediators” of information. These “portals” create a new sphere or structure of public opinion – “virtual communities” – more exploited until now as “consumers communities” as opposed to “social communities”. The case of sport is again emblematic in the history of communication as sport institutions turn into a new experimental scenario for these new commercial-identity strategies on the Internet. 2.2. Television on the Internet. Current state and prospective application Before referring to the possible synergies between sport, Olympic Games and the Internet, it is necessary to point out that this relationship will depend, to a large extent, on the convergence process that has to occur between television and the Internet. Video reception in our computers screen is no longer utopian, it is a possibility for those having advanced technological resources. In 2001, far away from modems with limited capacities (14.4 kbps in 1994; 28 kbps in 1996; 56 kbps in 1998 and 128 kbps in 2000), we have reached a new border of the technology of connection, with new DSL formulas for signal compression and decompression, that make possible an access speed that until now seemed utopian. Wide band new technologies, cable and satellite and the use of electrical networks for the transmission of digital signals, will open up new possibilities for the broadcasting of images to computers. This technological progress will not be enough to supersede conventional television, even less so on a world-wide scale, but they will have an effect in more developed countries in the world. In these cases, we can predict that video in the computer, therefore the access to television images via the Internet, will be a Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 7 consolidated fact and in everyday use before 2010. This gives rise to juridical, commercial and strategic problems for the organisers of mega-events planned for the year 2004, and above all for 2008, when some users from the richest countries in the world will have complete access to television on the Internet. 2.3. Sport on the Internet: new scenarios “Sport” is one of the basic items in all search engines and constitutes one of the basic offers of mass media on the Interneti. Sporting institutions (federations, clubs, National Olympic Committees), also a little behind these processes, have slowly discovered the possibilities of these new technologies to connect with their fans (“communities”), to create their own ways of communication and to exploit new ways of commercialising their image. This presence of sport on the Internet has its special moment in the coverage of the major sport events, and above all, in the Olympic Games, with important economic repercussions. According to Rachael Churchii, publicity in sport web sites will go from $612 million in 1999 to nearly $6000 million in 2005. During the same period the value of on-line shopping of sport products will go from $186 million to $5,800 million. In general it can be said that functions of sport web sites will multiply in the next years benefiting from their economic profitability: e-commerce, sponsorship, advertising, sale of tickets, sale of products, becoming one of the main business on the Net. But what are the specific functions of the use of the Internet in the Olympic Movement? It is certain that these functions will not be limited to financing nor to the increase of resources, they will have to be interpreted in social and cultural terms. New ways of mediation, production and access to information propose questions to the Olympic Movement and force it to redefine its communication policies and strategies in the digital era. 3. Internet and the Olympic Movement 3.1. The Olympic Games as a laboratory of innovation in information Historically the Olympic Games have been a privileged space for experimenting with new information technologiesiii. The main actors in the communication sector (telecommunication operators, mass media and information technologies) get involved in the Games with the objective of testing their services and promote themselves as leaders in innovation within their own sectorsiv. Although the presence of information technologies in the Games dates back to the Tokyo Olympics and Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 8 there were some telematic precedents in the Barcelona’92v and Albertville’92 Olympic Games, the Internet era did not start until Atlanta’96, with the first official web site of the Organising Committee (ACOG) (www.atlanta.olympic.org/) with a total number of 185 million visits during the 16 days of the Games. This first experience demonstrated the possibilities, but also the gaps and contradictions, of new information technologies: deficiencies in network operational capacity (“transmission interrupted”), insufficient transmission capacity of networks (“waiting for a reply”) and above all, lack of experience of users and information managers in the use of these new communication opportunities. However, the most critical aspect of the computer programme in Atlanta’96 was the results management. Numerous errors led to serious criticisms of the international press towards organisers. The image of Atlanta and the Games, but also the image of IBM, were damaged in this process. For this reason, the same day of the closing ceremony of the Games, IBM managers started a new plan with large material investments and human efforts in order to achieve a “gold medal” in the Nagano’98 Olympic Games and above all, in the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games. However, on the 7th August 1998, an IBM spokesperson announced the breaking of the agreement with the IOC after 38 years of collaboration. For its part, the IOC announced that its strategic objective was to try to share the sponsorship between various information and communication technology companies, making a distinction between hardware, software, results, management and the Internet. In December 1998, a new agreement was announced between the IOC and SEMA Group for the management of the Olympic Games until 2008. The Internet management will follow a path which is still to be defined. 3.2. Sydney 2000: Rivalry between Olympic actors on the Internet Until the Sydney 2000 Games the need for “intranet” information management of Organising Committees for the Olympic Games was well known. Since Sydney, the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) extends the borders of the organisation itself, or of the Olympic family, in order to establish an unprecedented world-wide communication programme. A real “revolution” in the structure of Olympic information starts to be produced, with the appearance of new rival actors. Figure 2 | Olympic actors on the Internet International Olympic Committee Sponsors Software companies Individual sites or social groups sites Organising Committee Mass media (press) Telecommunication operators Studies and documentation centres National Olympic Committees Mass media (broadcasters) Search engines Federations On-line mass media In Sydney 2000, according to ACNielsen data, the fight for world-wide leadership was between three main actors on the Internet: the North American television NBC, with its Internet programme NBCOlympics, the Miquel de Moragas Spà – Internet and the Olympic Movement 9 Sydney Organising Committee (SOCOG) and the Internet “portals” of large search engines, in first position sports.yahoo.comvi. Far away, behind this race, was the International Olympic Committee itself that gave its prominent role to the Organising Committee (SOCOG), mass media web sites and some National Olympic Committees experiences that formed new conglomerates together with other communication actorsvii. Even further, but aimed at having a more prominent role in the future, were the sponsors’ web sites, having at the moment better contents and paying more attention to Olympic education than National Olympic Committees themselves. Because of their cultural and political significance, more attention should be paid to some initiatives that appeared on the Internet from rebellious movements, as they can acquire an important resonance due to the multiplier effect of references given about them by international mass mediaviii. 3.3 The web site of the Organising Committee: a new mass media The web site of the Nagano’98 Organising Committee (www.nagano.olympic.org), with nearly 50,000 pages of content and with an unprecedented audience, a new “on-line Olympic multimedia” took shape. The web site included: current photographs (“daily snapshot from Nagano City”), interactive games (“competing for the gold at hockey”), proposals for participation (“sign the guestbook”), view of facilities from seats (“take a virtual seat!”) and the still experimental presentation of video on the computer. Table 7. Hits to the Atlanta’96, Nagano’98 and Sydney’2000 web sites “hits" (total 16 days) "hits" per day Maximum number of "hits" per minute Pages of content Atlanta’96 185,800,000 11,000,000 no data no data Nagano'98 634,000,000 39,700,000 110,414 48,493 Sydney’2000 11,300,000,000 70,625,000 (874,500,000 in one day) 1,200,000 no data Source: IBM The plurality of contents and the large dimension of the audience reached in Nagano, increased still further in Sydney 2000, present new problems for Olympic communication policy and, more specifically, for its policies regulating rights and cessation of exclusives. The first and main battle will be fought within the Olympic system itself. Especially significant was the competitiveness established between the site of the Sydney 2000 Organising Committee (www.olympics.com) and the web site of NBC (www.NBCOlympics.com). The NBC initiated a new form of coverage of the Games in Sydney, initially 'statistics', 'sound', 'photography' and 'hypertext', but aiming to convert itself in the next few years into a new form of 'multimedia' transmission, including complete high definition video image.