Have you ever been frustrated because your favorite Olympic event is not the one being shown on TV? Not to worry, because at long last broadcasters are finally able to give you the power to choose the events you watch. All it took was the miracle of broadband video streaming.

The Summer Games is the world’s biggest sporting spectacle, with multiple events taking place simultaneously, 12 hours per day. Broadcasters pay many millions for the rights to air the Olympics, but, in the past, with only one broadcast channel, they were forced to choose which events get live coverage.

Today, in addition to casters owning or partnering with specialty channels, broadband technology has made it possible to stream live video coverage of everything that’s happening, letting audience members decide which feed they want to watch. And this capacity has grown substantially of late.

‘Even a year ago, the most we could handle was two live streams,’ says Steve Billinger, executive director of digital programming and business development for CBC. ‘For the Summer Olympics in Beijing, we’re going to have 11 different live video streams all running at the same time on CBC.ca.’

The online video is in addition to what will be broadcast on the main CBC and Radio-Canada networks, as well as more coverage on Bold and CBC Newsworld and partners TSN and RDS. Coverage will not be duplicated across distribution channels on TV or online.

Billinger says that in anticipation of the Olympics, CBC has been cutting its teeth on the capabilities of broadband streaming all year, testing the technology on the NHL playoffs and other major sporting events.

‘We proved it works by showing every single hockey playoff game live, with pre-game and post-game coverage,’ Billinger says. ‘We can now give people the option to experience everything that’s going on.’

Broadband streaming is not the only digital technology that is breaking new ground in Olympic coverage this year. CBC is using every digital media outlet at its disposal, including the highly interactive website, web and mobile widgets, mobile video and voting, RSS content feeds, e-mail newsletters, blogs, and interactive TV.

‘We’ve never had this much live and continuous information,’ Billinger says. ‘It’s a logistical nightmare.’

CBC is relying on internal and external teams to manage the volume of content flowing through for the Olympics. Indusblue developed CBC’s Olympic website (www.cbc.ca/olympics), including the 35 different microsites that provide in-depth coverage and descriptions of every sport. The e-mail newsletter will be managed by ThinData, and Silverback Media is helping with SMS voting on a daily viewer-picked ‘Olympic Moment.’

The biggest partnership has been with Bell Canada, which is involved on multiple media fronts. Bell Mobility users with mobile video subscriptions will receive up to 15 exclusive highlight videos each day during the Games, while subscribers to ExpressVu satellite TV will be able to access bilingual mosaic ITV applications containing comprehensive coverage.

In addition to this exclusive deal with Bell, CBC will monetize its Olympic digital media initiative through sponsors and advertising across the various media platforms.

The Olympic website went live in May, long before the actual Games are due to begin Aug. 8. In addition to the microsites, which allow users to familiarize themselves with all the sports and Canadian competitors, pre-Games coverage focuses on a special ‘Beijing Bound’ feature hosted by Ron MacLean. In it, MacLean covers every aspect of the Games, including the location, the sports, and the athletes.

‘We’ve never had such a rich web presence,’ Billinger says. ‘It’s a fully programmed experience, and the feature material with Ron MacLean with the athletes is especially good.’

The CBC’s emphasis on using digital media to increase and improve its coverage of the Olympic Games is a significant step towards broadcasters making sense of the array of digital tools at their disposal. The flexibility of digital media finally makes it possible to properly cover something as complex as the Olympics.

As with most things in the digital sphere, the beneficiaries of this cross-media effort are the viewers, who are empowered to experience the Olympics in the manner of their own choosing, using the media they prefer. The only trick is that if Canadians want to experience the events as they happen live in China – many time zones away – they’ll have to stay up all night to do it.