Where to watch the Olympics online?

February 9, 2006 6:37 PM

What are the options, if any, for live video of the Winter Olympics online in the US? Having been able to watch CBC in 2002, I was spoiled, but this year it's back to NBC only. Worse, with the games in Europe this year, they will be showing everything that matters spliced into bite-size melodramatic bits, in between interminable ads and features, six hours after it actually happens. So, any options, licit or illicit?
posted by thirdparty to sports, hobbies, & recreation (6 comments total)

Hopefully those evil pirates will bittorrent it.
posted by b1tr0t at 6:57 PM on February 9, 2006

In 2004, people somehow tracked down live feeds from various countries that didn't properly use country-level blocking, like they were supposed to. The quality wasn't great and the commentators weren't in English, but they were always live. I figure the same thing will happen this year, after the games start up.

There's also the chance that people will cap the European broadcasts and post them to torrent sites and the newsgroups, but it's hard to predict that in advance and you'll be lucky to get it before a six-hour delay.
posted by smackfu at 7:00 PM on February 9, 2006

I recall the italian tv feeds were great for the 2004 Olympics, so I suspect that might work again this time around.
posted by mathowie at 7:43 PM on February 9, 2006

Does that mean that you don't have access to the CBC? Because they are showing the olympics.
posted by klangklangston at 9:38 PM on February 9, 2006

Stupid cable company will only sell us access in three month blocks. Grrrr.
posted by craniac at 10:07 PM on February 9, 2006

My client is one of the replay editors for the snowboard competitions. He chooses what tricks to replay and describes them to the producers at NBC. Pretty sweet gig. He's also blogging from there, and has some great photos up.
posted by camworld at 7:44 AM on February 10, 2006