Telecompetitor

AT&T announced an agreement with NBC Universal to provide expanded coverage of the Olympics across their three screen footprint. Olympics coverage will be presented to the television, PC, and mobile phone. The coverage across three screens will include:

• The NBC Olympics 2Go mobile TV channel, which provides “around-the-clock NBC coverage of the Olympics, including live competition footage.”
• In addition to regular coverage of the Olympic events, U-Verse users will gain access to on demand content including “a wrap-up of the best events of the day as well as on-demand access to between 15 and 20 unique events each day.”
• On the broadband front, subscribers will have access to Olympics on demand content, as well as download interactive widgets from NBCOlympics.com.

The AT&T Olympics All Access Pass promotion is illustrative of the so called “three screen strategy,” where carriers want to leverage their entertainment, broadband, and wireless networks into one integrated experience. Future iterations of this strategy will allow seamless “hand offs” of content viewing across platforms, so as I’m watching something on TV, and need to go mobile, I can pause that program on the TV, transfer it to my mobile device, and begin watching right where I left off. AT&T and Verizon are the two carriers poised to execute the three screen strategy first, and hope to build significant competitive advantage because of it. They’ll need to execute quickly, because cable is right on their heels, with their own wireless strategy. One that they hope will translate into a three screen experience of their own.