The Olympic Games broadcasted as Interactive Television - New Media new Games?

The Olympic Games is the world´s largest media event and television is the engine that has driven the growth of the Olympic Movement. Increases in broadcast revenue over the past two decades have provided the Olympic Movement with a huge financial base. More networks than ever before broadcast the Olympic Games to more countries and territories, with a record number of hours, a significant rise in the total viewing hours, and dramatic increases in live and prime-time coverage. Over 300 channels transmitted 35.000 hours of the Athens 2004 Olympic Games. The future of television is digital, which could change how the viewers watch the Olympic Games. New media initiatives will increase significantly, not only in the broadcast of television but also with broadband Internet coverage of the Olympic Games. In addition, mobile phone subscribers in some territories already have been able to watch live or delayed video coverage of the Olympic Games. The Torino Olympic Broadcasting was the first to be filmed entirely in High Definition Television. In the future the use of digital video processing, computer vision, 3D-visualisation and animation techniques allow viewers to watch sports events almost as if they were in the arena, while adding capabilities promise to make a seat in front of the TV even better than a seat in the stand. In the future viewers can move around the sports arena virtually, watch events from different angles, replay different scenes, gain interactive information and create their own races through applying 3D graphics to real footage. This paper is a media ethnographic perspective focusing on the effects some interactive services on television may have in a domestic context. I have asked the research question: How does the viewer watch television when they are offered different kind of Interactive services?