• by Steve Smith  @popeyesm, August 6, 2012

Mobile devices have become the social TV platform of choice when it comes to Twitter. According to social TV analytics firm Trendrr, 68% of this tweeting up the Games in front of a television are doing so on devices rather than on traditional PCs or laptops. These metrics come from analysis of the first three nights of NBC prime-time broadcasts earlier last week (July, 28, 29, 30).

In fact, social TV interactivity was almost certainly supercharged by the broader availability of smartphones and wider use of Twitter since the 2010 Winter games. Trendrr finds that in the first weekend of coverage, Tweets containing the term “Olympics” totaled 3,516,776 -- ten times the 307,356 they recorded in a similar span at the 2010 Games.

Social TV appears to be one sport that women fully dominate. Sixty-one percent of participants via Twitter are female. Trendrr says that in the sports genre this is a notable anomaly, since in the first half of 2012 men were responsible for 70% of sports postings. The worldwide social TV engagement is also a U.S.-led effort, with 40% of conversations originating here. During prime time, New York City, Los Angeles and Chicago have been the most active areas.

Despite controversy around tape delays of major events, social TV interactions continue to occur mainly during prime-time hours. Live sessions of key gymnastics, diving and volleyball events generated at most 4,500 tweets per minute but surpassed 8,000 per minute during prime time.