Olympic Report: Will Rio be the 'time shift' Olympics?

By James Wells

As one of the major sponsors of the Olympic Games in Rio, Panasonic believes there is a big opportunity for retailers to sell more than just a larger television to consumers before August.

“We have had enough Olympics now to see the trends,” Panasonic Australia director – consumer group, Richard Tassone said .

“Certain products have an ideal time period available to them to promote their features and for us this year that product range includes our range of recorders.

“It’s going to be a time-shift Olympics and this means that our range of hard disc recorders and Blu-ray recorders will be pretty exciting for us and for our retailers,” he said.

While events such as the popular swimming finals are expected to suit Australian broadcasting times as they will be held at midnight local time in Rio (1.00pm in Australia) to please US broadcasters who want to show it during prime time in their market, the vast majority of events are expected to be held during the late evening or early morning in Australia. Rio is 13 hours behind of Australia, so an event commencing at 10.00am in Rio will be broadcast live at 11.00pm in Australia, and an event held at 8.00pm in Rio will be broadcast at 9.00am in Australia.