With the cross-platform and expanded coverage of the 2008 Summer Olympics, we are reminded again that, like world-class athletes, media companies need to up their game.

Just like the Olympians, the media are facing a different world — and a higher level of competition — than they did just four years ago.

For example, fewer than seven million TV households could time-shift their Olympics TV-watching four years ago. Today, nearly 30 million have that capability, according to Magna Global Research and other sources.

Magna also reports that the number of VOD households has doubled since the Athens Olympics, to over 40 million households.

Residential broadband has also doubled over the past fours years, bringing to more than 70 million the number of households that can enjoy watching the Games online.

While iPods and most other mobile video players were still in the labs four years ago, millions of consumers now have the capability to watch the 2008 Olympics on their cell phones and other mobile devices.

NBC's plans for the 2008 Olympics are a great example of responding to these changes in media usage and, as a result, responding to the advertising community's expectations for audience delivery.

NBC's plans to provide over 3,600 hours of coverage, more than the total hours for every Summer Olympics ever televised in the United States.

In addition to coverage via six TV networks, NBC will offer more than 2,200 hours of live streaming video and more than 3,000 hours of on-demand coverage. It has also launched a mobile TV channel: NBC Olympics 2Go.

Advertisers, which are expected to spend more than $1 billion to engage viewers across these venues, according to industry analysts, are also going to get better data for validating their ROI.

As previously reported, NBC has developed a "total audience measurement index," or TAMI, which will combine data from Nielsen Media Research, Omniture and Rentrak to provide comprehensive analysis of multiplatform media usage.

While the network is using multiple content distribution platforms to increase viewing and revenue opportunities, some broadcast affiliates are scaling back their direct involvement in the games, citing the economy as one of the reasons to keep their news crews back home.

I was reminded of this when Rupert Murdoch said his companies' network and online revenues were strong, but repeated his warning that the advertising slowdown in the U.S. would adversely affect TV stations and newspapers. 

When you consider all of the great local stories that can be found among our Olympic athletes, whose ties include home towns, college towns and the cities and towns they call home today, local media have many opportunities to provide compelling and unique Olympics content to their audiences and advertisers, especially if they adopt a multiplatform approach that mirrors NBC's.

Station groups that are choosing to seize that opportunity include Hearst-Argyle, which will develop news segments for its 26 TV stations and their Web sites, and LIN TV.

Hopefully, the data from NBC's TAMI initiative and the experiences of these station groups will serve to reinforce the opportunities and the importance of giving viewers and advertisers what they want by seizing openings for expanding their local content and content distribution platforms.

On the other hand, if we look at the outlook for local television solely based on on-air revenues, there's reason for constricting station expenses, for sending your runners out without shoes.

Market researcher Advertising Perceptions recently reported that 30 percent of the media buyers it surveyed said they expect to decrease their broadcast spending in the next six months, compared to only 14 percent that said they expected it to increase.

While the majority of those surveyed said they expect to cut back on total ad spending, nearly three-quarters said they plan to increase their company's online spending in the coming six months versus the only 4 percent said they were expecting a decrease.

In addition, more than half of those surveyed said they expect to increase what they will spend on mobile while only 9 percent expect a decrease.

Respondents to this survey also mirrored other research concerning the demand for greater accountability in audience measurement (a topic we brought to the industry's attention with our September 2005 Regional Seminar, "Advertising Accountability").

More than 70 percent of those surveyed identified ad results as very important in their TV advertising selections compared to fewer than half of last year's respondents, suggesting that stations will be asked about better audience measurement by three out of every four buyers as compared to one out of every two last year.

With this in mind, the timing couldn't be better for Nielsen's decision to extend C3 ratings, which track time shifting, to its local audience measurement, and for NBC's TAMI initiative.

The Media Financial Management Association (MFM) will continue to do its part to educate the industry about approaches that favor growing our businesses through multi-platform expansion and enhancing audience measurement.

Our 2008 fall regional seminar in New York is entitled "Follow the Money-Give Advertisers What They Want."

Tim Hanlon, executive vice president, Ventures, Denuo, a Publicis Groupe company, will be providing our keynote address.

Confirmed presenters include Brian Wieser, CFA, director of industry analysis at Magna Global, and Elaine Boxer, vice president of Avenue A at Razorfish.

In addition to offering the big-picture rationale for developing an integrated multiplatform strategy, we'll maintain MFM's tradition of providing some proof of performance for those strategies through case studies from stations and other local media outlets that are making it work.

The seminar is slated for Oct. 16 from noon to 5 p.m. at the Penn Club in downtown Manhattan (30 West 44th St.). Registration forms and additional information are available at the MFM Web site.

The seminar is just one example of the educational programs that MFM's 2008-09 officers and board of directors are planning in the coming year to focus on the future of the media business.

Led by Chairman Bill Fitzsimmons, vice president  corporate finance and chief accounting officer for Cox Communications Inc. and Vice Chairman Sam Bush, senior vice president and CFO Saga Communications, MFA's executive committee also includes Secretary Jim Clayton, executive vice president and CFO for Scripps Networks, and Treasurer Rick Mangum, vice president, broadcast accounting for Clear Channel Worldwide.

Other board members hold top financial positions at Belo Corp., Bond & Pecaro, Bresnan Communications, Ernst & Young, Hearst-Argyle Television, ABC Television, Meredith Broadcasting, New Northwest Broadcasters LLC, Petry Media Corporation, Radio One, Raycom Media, Regent Communications Inc., Sciarrino & Shubert LLC, Szabo & Associates, Turner Broadcasting System, The Washington Post Company, and Columbia University's School of Business.

The full list of MFM Board and Advisory Committee Members may be found at on the Web site.

Armed with a number of recommendations from our Strategic Planning Committee and a commitment to provide the industry's finance professionals with the knowledge and tools they need for meeting the challenges of today's media marketplace, the 2008-09 board is also the first to lead the organization under its expanded mission.

Their outlook reminds me of the observation that TV One CEO Johnathan Rodgers made at our annual conference a few years ago.

Rodgers, whose background includes serving as GM for the CBS O&O in Chicago as well as president of its TV division, said that it is always better to be looking at ways to increase revenues rather than at ways to cut expenses.

I Iook forward to assisting our new board in taking that approach with our association as well as with the companies and industry groups we serve.

Mary Collins is the president and CEO of the Media Financial Management Association (formerly the Broadcast Cable Financial Management Association), a professional society for addressing the diverse needs of financial and business professionals in the broadcast, cable, and electronic media industries. Her column appears here every other Friday.