About half the people watching Olympics-related mobile videos or finding information on the subject from their mobile phones are doing it for the first time, according to U.S. media company NBC Universal.

Although the number of mobile phone users who are interested in mobile Olympic coverage is under half a million, NBC said that it was “stunned” that more people had not used their phones in such a way before, the European Journalism Centre (EJC) reported.

NBC, which broadcasts the Olympics in the United States, is experimenting with new media technology, and is using the Games to research new media adoption. In addition to TV, it is making content available online, through video on demand and on mobile platforms, according to the EJC.

About 1.7 million video streams of the swimming event last Monday were downloaded, and nearly 1.5 million videos were e-mailed, according to NBC, the EJC reported.

Although NBC had concerns about losing viewers to digital content, the opposite is turning out to be true, NBC stated.