Borrowing from NFL “Red Zone,” which is an NFL Network channel that whips from game to game whenever an imminent scoring opportunity is close, NBC’s Olympic “Gold Zone” is becoming a top online offering.
Yesterday, coverage of the first U.S. men’s hockey game against Slovakia was cut into, making that game smaller on screen, and popping up Russia’s game against Slovenia on the other side of the screen.
Viewers were then polled on Twitter which game they wanted to watch most.
An hour later, the screen had splitted itself into four, with live action from four different competitions.
The whip around from game to game is narrated by Andrew Siciliano, who anchors the NFL “Red Zone.”
This quick hit format, giving viewers a taste of a variety of the competitions going on in real-time instead of only having one game to choose from is paying off. NBC says “Gold Zone” has drawn 279,000 unique visitors so far during the Sochi games, and 10 million minutes watched.
Like the “Red Zone,” the quick paced, multi- game offering is an appropriate offering for the second-screen centric viewer. What’s an interesting new development with “Gold Zone” is sporadically offering fans the choice of what to watch via social—which the NFL does not do.
We’ll keep our eye on ongoing social engagement with “Gold Zone” for the remainder of the games.