Despite not caring much for most sports, I really like the Olympics, with a heavy weighting toward events that showcase strong individual performances. Since they started a few days ago, and I don’t have cable or (in an apparent change since the Winter Olympics) a useful antenna reception, I was more than slightly concerned about my ability to watch.
I figured the internet would save me. NBC has exclusive coverage and a dedicated site, nbcolympics.com. That hope was short lived. nbcolympics requires you to have an NBC subscription of some sort to watch much of the content.
On some random chance, I entered that I had Comcast Xfinity and it let me in without further credential check. Hopes renewed… temporarily.
The internet coverage appears to be largely junk. Some of the videos still don’t work, the ones that do often stutter for buffering. Worst of all many, maybe most, of them appear to be just a video recording with no production, specifically announcing, at all. Now, I’m not a fan of announcers in general, but when I’m watching a judo match, some background information is almost essential. Hopes dashed, again.
Today, I stumbled across a Facebook post about circumventing the Comcast / NBC monopoly in the US. PCMag.com has a nice article about how to use the UK’s expat service to watch BBC video.
After following the simple instructions and installing the proxy software, I’m off an running on the BBC’s web site as promised. My initial impression comparing a few days of watching on NBC’s web site vs. the BBC’s is that the BBC’s coverage is absolutely amazing, or rather that NBC’s coverage (and organization) is embarrassingly poor.
As an example, with no wading through ads, I can easily pull up 2+ hours of the latest swimming coverage with the following benefits:
1. Beneath the progress bar are quick links for all the individual events.
2. The video can run full screen, outside the browser (great if you have two monitors and want to write on Facebook while watching).
3. Unlike Youtube’s (apparently shit) back end, I haven’t hit buffering once, dispite running a proxy through the UK and having a relatively slow internet connection.
4. Video quality is vastly better than NBC / youtube.
5. There don’t appear to be any ads. NBC was trying to sell me a Chevy at least once every five minutes.
6. No special interest stories or other filler. The may be available, but they’re not mixed into the event coverage.
Down side:
Announcers have British accents.
NBC has exclusive rights to Olympic coverage, I think for the next ten years, and they’ve handled it so poorly that their potential customers are virtually leaving the country to circumvent them. I guess that’s what happens when profit from subscriptions and advertising overshadows having a product people are interested in. Maybe in two and half years, they’ll get their act together for the Winter Olympics.
