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Terra.com's Olympics site features the Fan Zone, (above),offering the most up-to-date results for the games and medal count in real time.
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Hispanic Web Portals Go for Gold in Olympics Content
August 08, 2008
By Della de Lafuente
NEW YORK Hispanic-targeted Web portals are mounting expanded online and mobile coverage of the 2008 Summer Games, boasting specialized content and 24/7 reporting of Olympic competitions beginning with today's opening ceremonies.
Terra.com, YahooTelemundo.com and AOL Latino are some of the sites investing in Web coverage of all aspects of the games with a focus on Hispanic-themed content centered on U.S. Latino Olympic athletes and teams representing Latin American countries.
For the first time, Terra.com will provide dual Web and mobile coverage aimed at its U.S. and Latin America users via the special home page "Beijing 2008," showcasing components of its internal Atomo Project, described as a third generation portal design featuring Web 3.0 interactive capabilities and multimedia tools.
"We think that for the U.S. [Olympic] audience, we can add a lot to what they can currently get through other sites," said Mark Lopez, COO, Terra Networks USA, in an interview. "Our goal is to extend our sports coverage for our loyal audience who comes to us for sports news every day of the year, but also to bring a new audience to the experience."
Advertisers on board for Terra's Olympics offerings in the U.S. include: Allstate, Azteca América, Best Buy, Comcast, Coors, Farmers' Insurance, Ford, HBO Latino, Puma, Toyota, Verizon, Wells Fargo, U.S. Army and U.S. Navy, per Terra.com.
The portal also has embarked on a promotional push to woo sports enthusiasts via the Terra networks and externally through out-of-home advertising and a partnership with Major League Soccer supporting Wednesday night’s (Aug. 6) game between FC Barcelona and the New York Red Bulls. The game sponsorship was designed to steer soccer enthusiasts to Terra Deportes for their sports news, Lopez said.
A viral strategy has also been built around Terra social networking sites and groups created around the Olympics' Web site to invite friends to become fans of the games and to express themselves online; and through other social networks such as FaceBook linked to Terra content and coverage.
Terra is the first online company to get live video streaming rights from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to broadcast the Olympics via the Internet and mobile phone in Latin America, offering users in 18 countries live and on demand access via 13 channels that will simultaneously stream video via 24-hour real time coverage.
In the U.S., where NBC Universal and its various properties including Telemundo hold exclusive broadcast rights, Terra users can access content and info on the games at Terra.com/Olympics08. The site features the Fan Zone, offering the most up-to-date results for the games and medal count in real time.
News, photo galleries and video on demand are some of the features of the online Fan Zone section with special coverage devoted to Latin and foreign athletes competing in the games, including their competitive records for all sports and by country and a guide highlighting Olympic venues, culture, historical facts and entertainment.
"This is all about communities. Which Latino people go to the games and who is cheering for which team?" said Angel Sepulveda, executive director of programming, Terra Networks USA. "All of these experiences are being brought into Terra USA and with the Fan Zone people are able to communicate with each other and send messages of support to their favorite athletes and teams."
Terra has some 30 people in China covering the games, producing original content and staffing a TV studio in Beijing with satellite links to Terra's TV operations in San Paulo, Brazil, to feed video content to its vast networks in the U.S. and Latin America.
A team of 60 is based in Brazil, monitoring the games and providing minute-by-minute sports coverage of certain games, which U.S. users will see on their screens in text form accompanied by some still photography and users in Latin America will receive as live video streaming, Sepulveda said.
Terra will provide bilingual coverage for online users in the U.S. and in Spanish for Latin America.
The Terra site also boasts a streamlined design created for the Olympics pages to provide a fresh look and experience for users. "t's the start of what is going to be the new Terra in terms of our look and feel and how we look in the future," Sepulveda said.
Other Web portals offering special online Olympics coverage include:
YahooTelemundo.com The portal has created "China 2008," a site dedicated to coverage of the Beijing games: http://espanol.sports.yahoo.com/china2008/ featuring the latest news and competition results, videos and photo galleries.
The site offers various interactive tools, including the ability to share and comment on news articles, photos and videos, upload photos on Flickr, ask questions via Yahoo! Repuestas, among other features, the portal said.
The site will complement U.S. network TV broadcast coverage of the games in Spanish via Telemundo.
AOL Latino The portal has launched Fanaticos.com, a sports blog that will feature coverage of the Olympics and that is written by a team of nine sports writers from Mexico, Argentina and the U.S., per a press statement.
Throughout the games, the site will focus on Olympics sports competitions involving the fútbol (soccer), baseball and boxing teams of the U.S., Mexico, Spain and Latin America. Coverage will be provided throughout the games, the portal said.
Bloggers featured on the site include: Pablo Seoane of Argentia, who writes about sports trends and soccer tournaments including Copa Libertadores and Copa Sudamerica; Juan Vene, a baseball aficionado best known as Major League Baseball's voice en Espanol; and Omar Porcayo, a soccer authority who will provide coverage of the soccer games from Mexico City, per AOL Latino.
In the coming months, pages highlighting soccer teams and players as well as news feeds, blog postings, editorial content on individual players and a video search hub will also be added to the site, per the portal.
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