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watched at least some of the Games thanks to the multi-platform approach of Grupo Globo, who led the host country’s largest-ever broadcast operation with 56 online channels.“We used all the force of our content platforms to make the Games a truly national experience,” says Grupo Globo’s Sports Division CEO Roberto Marinho Neto, “and the result was historic.”If London 2012, which brought Olympic coverage to viewers across a number of new platforms, was the fi rst “digital Games”, then Rio 2016 may be remembered as the Games when digital became as mainstream as traditional television broadcasting. There was more digital coverage than ever in Rio – over 240,000 hours in total, a fi gure that was more than double that of television coverage, and dwarfed the 81,500 hours of digital coverage produced in London. While the broadcast effort encompassed far more than extending the digital reach of the Games – the launch of new, emerging technologies which offered more immersive viewing experiences for fans was another key element, for example – it was the incredible growth on the digital side which made Rio 2016 a seminal episode in the history of sports coverage, according to OBS Chief Executive Offi cer Yiannis Exarchos.“What makes Rio 2016 a watershed moment in broadcasting is that the broadcasters were able to provide their viewers with more choices than ever before for how, when, and where they were able to enjoy the coverage of the Olympic Games,” he says. “I think this is the key takeaway from the Rio 2016 ÔHUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE MAINLY WATCHED THE GAMES THROUGH DIGITAL MEDIA’ YIANNIS EXARCHOS, OBS CEOAbove OBS ensures the quality of coverage for all 28 sports on the Olympic programmeLeft Technical innovations allowed viewers to get closer to the athletesBelow Nine out of 10 people who had access to TV in Brazil saw some coverage of the Games456TOTAL HOURS of the Olympic News Channel distributed to the offi cial broadcastersbroadcast operation. These were the fi rst truly digital Games, in the sense that hundreds of millions of people mainly watched the Games through digital media – especially younger people.”The massive increase in digital coverage and the modest increase in television coverage did not happen by accident, and mirrored evolving patterns of consumption. Technology has moved at a breathless pace since London 2012 and Olympic broadcasting, traditionally a trailblazer for the innovative ways in which sport is covered, has been a key part of the evolution. Indeed, underpinning the record-breaking digital fi gures was a concentrated effort, from OBS in partnership with the RHBs, to give viewers more options for how they could watch the action unfold.The control centre for this digital push was the International Broadcast Centre (IBC), which was located within Barra Olympic Park, near nine Olympic venues, and operated around REFUGEE OLYMPIC TEAMOLYMPIC REVIEW 35OLYMPIC BROADCASTING