The 2008 Summer Games will not go down in history as a watershed online event, even though it drew a record number of viewers on the Web. That's because NBC could have gone further, putting content on more devices, making it easier to access and providing more live coverage.

That's the view of several executives from content and technology companies whom I asked to comment on NBC's online coverage, with an eye toward the future.

Still, the network got a lot right and allowed Americans unprecedented access to many events that otherwise would have been shunted aside. Here are four things the network did well and four areas that could be improved for the next global sporting spectacle.

What hit:

—1. If you like badminton, table tennis or team handball, you could find it online. NBC had cameras on nearly every event, creating a treasure trove of content that viewers could access when they wanted. The users controlled what they wanted to watch. There was a lot of 'buzz' online about the badminton coverage, for example, even though it got minimal exposure on NBC or its cable partners. Some events had small audiences (figures not available) but viewers were engaged.

—2. This proved there is an audience for niche sports, even when it may not be economical or practical to broadcast on television. In non-Olympic years, NBC and other networks could show championship events online from lesser known sports even if coverage is picked up from another provider. ESPN does this with its ESPN 360 product.

—3. The use of technology, overall, was excellent. The Silverlight plug-in, developed by Microsoft, allowed viewers to watch multiple events at the same time. It was easy to choose one event in the main viewer while others of interest would play in adjacent smaller screens.

—4. On Aug. 15, its best day online, NBC drew 7.9 million unique viewers (8.3 percent of its total viewership that day) — an impressive figure, but more than 86.4 million people (91 percent) of the audience still came from TV. The key reason is that NBC did a masterful job of providing the Olympics' most compelling content live to U.S. viewers. Michael Phelps won all his gold and broke all his records live, as we watched. NBC deserves a gold for prime-time negotiation.

What missed:

—1. The mobile viewership was anemic, well under one percent of the total audience on any given day. That's because only AT&T customers with a video-enabled phone could watch the Olympic coverage. But not every AT&T customer with a cool phone could participate, as iPhone owners were shut out. NBC needs to make its content more widely available, no matter the device. People will tune in if the content is available.

—2. There were numerous complaints about Silverlight and compatibility. But don't necessarily blame Microsoft or NBC: one of the great challenges of making video content available online, live or taped, is to make the technology as simple to use as a television. It is not there, as some computers can't access coverage depending on the combination of Web browser and software plug-ins required to watch the telecast. There are still too many hoops to jump through.

—3. Not enough content was live, even at 4 a.m. NBC had a big challenge with the half-day time difference, but it still only offered some events live as they happened. It could have shown events live online, when they happened, and repeated them during prime time. News consumers already knew what happened anyway. People will get up at 4 a.m. to watch something they love, particularly since it only happens every four years.

—4. For some avid enthusiasts, there still wasn't enough coverage of niche sports. If you wanted to watch shot-putting, even ardent fans had trouble finding it online.

Subjects interviewed for this story: Jon Gibs, vice president of media analytics, Nielson Online; John Zehr, senior vice president of product development, ESPN Digital Media; Allen Weiner, consumer tech analyst, Gartner Inc.; David Wadler, CEO of Twistage Inc.