By now you've probably known that the 2012 Summer Olympics will be held in London from 27 July to 12 August 2012 for the third time in history. Though it’s London third time hosting the games, the country will be setting a precedent by offering viewers “the first digital Olympics.”

Advancement in technology will allow sports fans all over the world to see more Olympics action than ever this summer without being chained to the television screen.

BBC will be providing 2,500 hours of live Olympics coverage on up to 24 live streams, available across PC, mobile, tablet, and connected TVs. In addition, the coverage will provide easy access to links explaining player history, sport rules, and video highlights.

In the United States, NBCUniversal is planning similar blanket coverage of all 302 medal competitions.

This user-friendly, wide-spanning coverage changes the way we view the Olympics. The BBC Olympics mobile browser site, accessible across all mobile devices, will mirror much of the desktop experience, while audiences can also access coverage through tablets and connected TV.

The BBC's Red Button service for the Olympics on Sky, Virgin Media and Freesat will offer audiences access to up to 24 live streams, while there will be an additional 24-hour channel of extra BBC Olympics content available via the BBC Red Button for audiences with Freeview and BT Vision.

The BBC Sport app for connected TVs will give audiences access to the BBC's interactive coverage, while Virgin Media TiVo users will be able to access this content via the BBC Red Button.

The BBC Sport website will offer a page for every sport, country, athlete and venue. The coverage includes live updates, Twitter visualizations and comments from across social media.

But are all the sports fans really interested in these options? They are not, predicts a research by the sports media group Perform.

According to the report, just 16% of American sports fans plan to watch the action online via PC, and just 7% plan to do so by Internet-enabled mobile device. Despite the fact that NBCOlympics.com will stream every event from every sport as well as every medal ceremony — 3,500 hours all told.

Seventy-one percent of Americans plan to watch the Games on TV the old fashioned way. Twenty-three percent said they’ll read online via PC, and 7% by mobile device. 27% plan to read article offline, and 12% will follow along via social media.

In Australia, where much of the competition will take place during working hours as well, online viewing forecasts are also low. Ten percent of Australian respondents to the Perform survey said they’ll watch online via PC, while just 6% said they’ll watch on a mobile device. Seventy-three percent said they’ll watch on regular television.

These games might stroke up a competition between three of the international sponsors of the Olympics - Acer, Panasonic and Samsung.

Acer, Panasonic and Samsung are three of 11 global Olympic sponsors who have paid a total $957 million to market products on the back of the Games - winter and summer.

Beyond brand-building, sponsors see the Games as a showcase for new technologies and advertising strategies, and are really positive about the potential offered by London.

Coming to India, ESPN Star Sports, the official broadcaster of 2012 London Olympics in India, is targeting advertising revenue of Rs 550 million from the 16-day event which will be held from 28 July to 12 August with the opening ceremony on 27 July.

The sportscaster has roped in Tata DoCoMo as co-presenting sponsor while Airtel Digital TV has come on board as the associate sponsor, say sources.

The viewership of Olympics has seen improvement and it has emerged as a viable marketing platform for advertisers who are looking at other sporting events that get viewership.

A case in point is 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi which despite all the controversies surrounding it was sampled by 115 million viewers with average ratings of 0.5 TVR on DD1 and DD Sports on the back of encouraging performance by Indian athletes with Indian winning a record 101 medals.