• by Masha Geller , February 11, 2002

The Olympics may not have done much advertising online, aside from two email blasts with streaming video content to the NBCi list, complete with a cool video illustrating the events NBC would be televising, but according to Nielsen//NetRatings daily overnight analysis, traffic to the two official Winter Olympic sites, NBCOlympics.com and Olympics.com, soared during this past weekend.

"The 2002 Winter Games are off to a nice start with every indication that it will be a solid event with Web participation," said Allen Weiner, VP and principal analyst at NetRatings.

At its peak, NBCOlympics.com attracted more than 398,000 unique visitors on Saturday, February 9, jumping 49% since the opening day ceremonies on February 8.

Olympics.com surged 58% from February 8 to February 9 and drew its highest visitorship on Sunday, February 10, as more than 311,000 surfers logged on to the site for the latest event information.

"The Olympics information on the Web will play a complementary role to the daily coverage playing out on television," added Weiner.

"The Internet allows surfers to find very specific Olympic-related news when they want, while television broadcast is delivered on a set schedule focusing coverage on the more popular events."