NBC Online Olympics Viewing Soars, Nielsen Reports....Beet.TV Gets Olympics Workflow Story from Microsoft

The number of unique visitors to NBC Olympics video site soared to over two million on Monday as viewers tuned into the Games from the workplace, Nielsen announced today. These numbers show that the much-grumbled about time delay of the online coverage hasn't had a negative effect on online ratings.

Not all of the coverage is delayed: Eric Schmidt, Director of Media and Advertising Evangalism at Microsoft, explains how live streaming for NBC Olympics coverage works. The Microsoft Silverlight player, which powers NBC's Olympics coverage, streams live content using Windows Media Services, he says.

On-demand content is streamed using a combination of Windows Media Services and http servers.

Schmidt also describes how video is delivered from live feeds in Beijing to content delivery networks to the Silverlight player.

Andy interviewed him in the Beet.TV offices last week.

Update:  The Associated Press has just published a report about Olympics viewing habits online and on mobile phones.

Update: 8.14: A story in The New York Times this morning gives a behind-the-scenes look at how NBC announcers cover the Olympics from New York.

--Kelsey Blodget, Associate Producer

Below are the Nielsen numbers released tonight: