Home › Research & Metrics › Consumer Action
CONSUMER ACTION
Published: August 12, 2004
Fired Up for Summer Olympics
 
PRINT

Study finds that keyed-up youth plan to integrate online and TV for Olympics.

Young people are keyed up about the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and plan to follow it through both television and the Internet, a study has found.

Harris Interactive, which interviewed 1, 228 youths ages 8 to 18 years old in July, found that more than half (57 percent) of young people rate the Summer Olympic Games as an exciting major sporting event, rating only the Super Bowl (59 percent) as more exciting. Kids and teens rate the Summer Olympic Games as more exciting than the World Series, (40 percent), NBA Finals (39 percent), Stanley Cup Finals (29 percent) and World Cup (26 percent).

A majority (70 percent) of young people say they will use the media to keep up with the Summer Olympic Games, and plan to use several media outlets to keep up with the results of different events. Nearly two-thirds (63 percent) will follow the Games on television, while fewer young people plan to go online (28 percent), newspapers (20 percent) or magazines (7 percent) to stay informed.

"If interest among youth is any indicator, this summer's Olympic Games should be a big success," says Marc Scheer, research manager at Harris Interactive. "We know that kids will keep tabs on the Games through the media, and many have their own dreams of Olympic glory."

Competitive sports have inspired youths, the study found. One-fifth of respondents say if they had the talent to participate in any major sporting event, it would be the Summer Olympic Games. This was followed by the X Games (15 percent), the World Cup (11 percent) the Super Bowl (10 percent) and the NBA Finals (10 percent).

Some Olympic events hold more appeal than others. The study found that young people are most interested in events such as gymnastics, (44 percent), swimming (37 percent), diving (33 percent), basketball (28 percent) and track and field (26 percent).

The events that don't spark much interest in young people include handball (10 percent), sailing (8 percent), modern pentathlon (7 percent), rowing (7 percent) and badminton (6 percent).