A nation of sports enthusiasts and the biggest sporting event ever held on home soil? It was a fair bet that London 2012 was going to capture the imagination of the British public.
But what about the Winter Olympics…could the XXII Games in Sochi also tap into the UK public’s thirst for world class sport? Would Charles Dance’s chilling “voice of nature” trail tempt people to tune in?
That question has been answered in emphatic style over the last 17 days.
Team GB equalled their best ever medal haul, while over 33.7 million people in the UK watched the BBC’s TV coverage of the Games. From Skeleton to Speed Skating, and Bobsleigh to Biathlon, those audience figures put the Winter Games on a par with the popularity of Wimbledon, Formula 1, Match of the Day and many other major events.
Online, traffic to the Winter Olympics website helped drive record BBC Sport audiences with over 20 million unique UK browsers last week - the highest number outside of the Olympics in 2012. We also introduced a new responsive service during Sochi, giving audiences with the same user experience across PCs, tablets and mobiles, as we know how audiences love to follow the action wherever they are.
We’d love to know what you thought of the service and we’ll be working to continue to improve it for the summer’s major sporting events, including Wimbledon, the World Cup, Commonwealth Games and beyond.
It was a huge privilege for all involved - presenters, commentators, reporters, producers, technicians, engineers – to cover the Games. In Sochi and at our base in Salford, production teams have been working around the clock, providing content for BBC Two, BBC One, 2 Red Button channels, up to 6 online streams, IPTV, BBC Breakfast, BBC News at One, BBC News at Six, BBC News at Ten, BBC Radio 5 live, Radio 1, Radio 2, Radio 4, World Service, the News Channel, World News, The One Show, Blue Peter, Newsround, Alan Davies Apres-Ski, BBC Scotland, BBC Wales, BBC Northern Ireland and BBC Local Radio stations. Everyone will have their favourite moments – perhaps Lizzy Yarnold’s gold run, last stone dramas in the Ice Cube or even the high adrenalin racing in Ski and Snowboard Cross.
We have experienced high volumes of audience feedback about our coverage, which is again testament to the level of interest in the event. One topic that divided opinion was the style of commentary at the Snowboarding Slopestyle event, with some people questioning our approach but over four times as many people praising it and asking for more. The Winters have offered a great opportunity to bring newer voices into the BBC Sport family, all experts in their field and we feel that overall we got the balance right in bringing both the technicality and the excitement of these high adrenaline sports to our audiences. All the feedback is hugely valuable and helps inform our approach to future events.
It’s been a fantastic start to 2014, and there’s a lot more to come. With the Six Nations in full swing, our attention shifts to honing plans for major events such as the FIFA World Cup, F1, Wimbledon, Open Golf, Glasgow 2014 and next season’s FA Cup. In a modern, multi-channel world, there has never been so much great sport on the BBC – we hope you continue to enjoy what’s on offer.
Barbara Slater is Director, BBC Sport
- Read more blogs by Barbara Slater
- Software developer William Bamford wrote about buidling the Winter Olympics website on the BBC Internet Blog
- Also on the BBC Internet Blog, Johnathan Ishmael wrote about the BBC's new live event coverage service.
