Categories: Uncategorized

Pigeons to Present: The Evolution of Olympic Communication [INFOGRAPHIC]

The exponential growth of social media since the last Summer Olympics in 2008 will definitely reshape this year’s Games in profound ways. But tracing the evolution of Olympic communication back more than 2,000 years proves just as fascinating.

Forget livestreams, score alerts and Twitter — back in the day, Olympic results were delivered by homing pigeon. Then the advent of the “modern” Games in 1896 came during the same year as the introduction of the wireless telegraph. The first Olympic radio broadcast came more than a quarter century later, in 1924, and 1936 saw (get it?) the first live telecast. In 1960, the Games were broadcast worldwide for the first time ever. Finally, the 1996 Games in Atlanta were billed as the “Internet Olympics” — offering the first real sign of what was to come in 2012.

The network solutions company Acme Packet recently dug up all these stats and more from a variety of sources from around the web to produce the infographic below.

Among Acme Packet’s other notable findings: a billion people will receive updates, get results and watch events via digital devices this summer; mobile traffic worldwide is expected to increase by 211% during the London Games; and the Olympics’ estimated operating cost this year would be enough to cover more than 10.5 billion hours of international Skype calls.

Even more impressive though? By the time Rio 2016 rolls around, there will be more mobile devices than people in the world, and this summer’s “first social Olympics” will seem antiquated by comparison.

Check out the infographic below for the full picture, then share with us in the comments — how will you communicate with friends during this summer’s Olympics?

Prateek Panda

Prateek is the Founder of TheTechPanda. He's passionate about technology startups and entrepreneurship and enjoys speaking to new founders every day. Prateek has also been consistently regarded as one of the top marketing experts in the region.

Recent Posts

M&A: The art of the deal

The Tech Panda takes a look at recent mergers and acquisitions within various tech ecosystems…

2 days ago

As we seek to create robots that’re more ‘human’ who’s helping? AI

As robotics progresses towards creating humanoid robot helpers, our tendency is to create them in…

4 days ago

Japan’s Web3 Strategy: A Safe Haven for Chinese Investors Fleeing Capital Controls?

On June 7, 2025, Japan enacted a series of regulations aimed at enabling stronger consumer protections…

5 days ago

Agentic AI Is Reshaping Data Infrastructure—Are Data Warehouses Obsolete?

Introduction: The Signal Behind Snowflake’s CEO Change In the spring of 2024, Snowflake, a star…

5 days ago

The new space race: How politics is shaping the battle for the final frontier

The modern space race is increasingly political, driven by national pride, military strategy, and economic…

5 days ago

Mind the B-Gap: India leads on digital inclusion, but affordability remains the next frontier for telco growth

Millions of would-be customers remain offline across Asia’s fastest-growing digital economies. This is not a…

7 days ago