Beijing Olympics via millions of online viewers in China

CCTV International Networks (CCTV.com) Thursday announced a strategic relationship with Adobe Systems to deliver the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games' coverage through the Web.

CCTV.com, the national television network of the People's Republic of China, will deliver its Olympics coverage to millions of sports fans in Mainland China and Macau through the "Olympic Network TV Station".

CCTV.com owns the online video rights to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games for mainland China and Macau. With thousands of hours of competition video available on CCTVOlympics.com, the Olympic Network TV Station will allow sports fans to view the Olympic sports, athletes and country teams of their choice.

New media platforms

"Over the past year, we've developed new media platforms based on the most advanced Internet technologies," said Wang Wenbin, general manager of CCTV.com.

"By teaming up with Adobe, we can provide sports fans and consumers an engaging online experience for the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games and beyond. We chose to partner with Adobe because Adobe technologies enable us to deliver a compelling Web 2.0 experience consistently to people across platforms."

The Olympic Network TV Station, CCTVOlympics.com, will deliver viewers with an unprecedented Web experience created with Adobe Flex and delivered via Adobe Flash technology, which includes Olympic results, statistics, comprehensive bios, rules and expert analysis from CCTV's Olympic media team, as well as social networking features that will enable fans to share aspects of their Olympic experience with friends.

On-demand streamed videos

It will also provide 5,000 hours of on-demand protected streamed video content (3,800 hours of worldwide broadcast Olympic Games video and 1,200 hours of CCTV's own video) including full event replays, highlights, features, interviews and encore packages.

Besides the Olympic Games, CCTV.com and Adobe will pursue other initiatives to develop new media based applications leveraging CCTV.com's brand and content and Adobe's advanced technology platform.