Tech Scan: How to watch the London Olympics here in Seattle
Every Olympics event will be live on virtually every electronic gadget you may have. What's not to love?
Watching the 2012 London Olympic Games on TV, now through Sunday, Aug 12, should be more fun, and less painful, than watching the Beijing events four years ago.
In Seattle four years ago, Comcast subscribers were able to watch the Olympics on Canada’s CBC (a channel offered to Seattle Comcast customers), but not this year: The CBC lost its Olympics coverage to Canada’s CTV.
So what does NBC have in store for us?
1) Live coverage of literally every Olympics sports event will be everywhere — on TV, computers and mobile devices.To access all the live Internet Olympics coverage, you first need to sign in on NBC's Olympics website. And to sign in, you’ll need to have a cable or satellite account. Sorry, but that’s how the game is played these days. Here's a video clip from NBC's Carson Daly explaining how to set up your Olympics viewing.
2) Don't look for the opening or closing ceremonies to be available live anywhere except on broadcast TV. That means you'll need to be watching KING-5 starting at 7:30 p.m. on Friday to see what London has cooked up — unless you want to cheat and watch news clips and written reports about an eight-hour-old event on CNN.com, The Seattle Times online, or virtually any other news site in the world. For additional TV-only viewing resources, the "On Demand" services of your cable/satellite provider should have a "2012 London Olympics" section for viewing recorded video of the day's events.
3) A good place to start figuring out what events you want to watch live is NBCOlympics.com. To track the progress of our Seattle area athletes, check out the KING-5 part of the website.
4) NBC/Universal will use its full array of cable channels to bring you live TV coverage. So, if you watch regularly scheduled shows shows on KING-5, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, Telemundo, SciFi, and USA, you’ll likely find your programming interrupted for the next two weeks. As I write, "The Cycle" news program on MSNBC has been preempted by Olympics soccer.
5) For basketball and soccer fans, NBC has dedicated cable channels specifically for these sports. Basketball on Comcast will be on Channel 895; soccer will be on Channel 896. For similar services on other cable or satellite systems, check with your provider.
6) The Internet is hog heaven for watching the Olympics this year.
If you're watching on a computer, check out NBC's Live Extra to see all Olympics live televised events. Again, you'll need to have cable or satellite service to sign in and qualify for this feature. Does the fact that every online event will begin with a 30-second commercial surprise you?
For Apple and Android tablets and smartphones, download both the NBC Olympics app for news and events schedules, and NBC Olympics Live Extra for live viewing from your respective app stores. Caution: some Android devices may balk at handling the live feeds, according to comments on the Google Play website. I tested Live Extra on three Android devices — Droid Bionic and Galaxy Note smartphones and the Nexus 7 tablet — and all worked perfectly. I'm sure you already thought about this, but if you watch live coverage on your data plan, not WiFi, be sure you also watch how much data you consume.
7) Finally, for those who have Comcast's Internet services at home, the company also offers you free WiFi hotspots around Puget Sound. So if you have a WiFi-only tablet, iPod Touch or similar device, this Comcast website will help you locate sites to help you guzzle more Olympics coverage while you’re out and about.
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Comments:
Posted Fri, Jul 27, 8:12 a.m. Inappropriate
Interestingly enough nobody else in the world but us in the US needs to have a pay TV account to gain full access to the NBC Olympics site. However, there is a method to access the NBC website without being a pay TV subscriber.
Simply use a proxy server to access the site.
Full access to one of the two main proxy servers is like 10 bucks for a month.
A small investment, plus it allows one to access all of the international coverage of the event.
Posted Fri, Jul 27, 5:33 p.m. Inappropriate
@BD - didn't you know the US is exceptional? Exceptionally passive to being ripped off by our corporate masters.
Posted Sat, Jul 28, 4:29 p.m. Inappropriate
At least we don't have to pay a tax to watch TV.
Posted Fri, Jul 27, 7:40 p.m. Inappropriate
This all sounds pretty dismal. Oh for the days when it was ABC, with that great horns and drums Olympic fanfare, and Curt Gowdy and....oh well, that coverage probably wasn't that great either. At least it didn't seem like one long advertisement and showcase of airsickness inducing video effects, with everything dumbed down for a brain dead audience.
I'll probably watch a few hours on broadcast TV then forget about it.
Posted Fri, Jul 27, 7:56 p.m. Inappropriate
Nice puff piece, Skip.
This is just shilling for NBC, which is shilling for paid cable/ satellite services and ignoring those who choose not to use, or can't afford, overpriced commercial conduits.
What does this say to the over-the-air listeners (a fair number of which, I must point out, are low-income)? "You're nothing," that's what it says!
NBC's touting of their online feed as being provided "...at no extra charge" is a joke. And your "sorry, but that's how the game is played" is a failure to look more deeply at the symbolism and reality of this shabby, self-serving corporate ploy.
Posted Fri, Jul 27, 10:46 p.m. Inappropriate
Note that a lot of people have had trouble making the Internet feed work. I have been dead in the water for two days now, trying with two browsers and three computers, after having flushed caches, dumped cookies, disabled pop-up blocking, spending an hour with a very helpful Comcast service rep...
A Trouble Ticket was sent to the "back end" gurus, who have been deafeningly silent to date. I'm getting HBO free for three months to buy off my ire.
What is much worse, you may recall that Comcast now OWNS NBC, so this is just one giant cabal. What do you think the implications are for the future delivery of much more critical information to the public?
Posted Sat, Jul 28, 11:38 a.m. Inappropriate
Thanks for the overview (no need to add to previous comments about the $$ side of things), but there are no Comcast/Xfinity hotspots in the Puget Sound area (or anywhere in the West except the Bay Area) at all, at least as reported by the horse's mouth...
Posted Sat, Jul 28, 12:09 p.m. Inappropriate
The internet feed is a joke. As a DirecTV subscriber, I've been kicked off the NBC Olympics website 20 times today, and invited to re-log in. And when it does "work" (on a very fast broadband connection) it constantly locks up.
As for Android: Two of three of my (recent) devices won't load the app. The one that does delivers comical video.
This column ignores the central question on every viewer's mind: Why NBC can't simply broadcast live Olympic events on TV, especially on a weekend. As I write this, swimming medal events are being contested in London, and NBC is showing a USA women's prelim basketball game that ended two-plus hours ago. Pathetic.
More fun? Less painful? Are you serious? Just about every other country in the world gets better Olympic coverage than NBC's newest collection of packaged schlock and buggy, non-functional "live" fill-in technology.
Posted Sat, Jul 28, 12:11 p.m. Inappropriate
By the way: The Opening Ceremony was not broadcast live on TV anywhere in America. It was delayed 3 hours to the East Coast, and 6 hours to the West Coast by NBC.
Posted Mon, Jul 30, 7:05 p.m. Inappropriate
I'd love to watch the Olympics on my computer, but in order to be allowed access to the NBC Live Streams you have to have a cable subscription which I do not. I have a pure Internet connection (I get my video from Hulu and Netflix, etc).
A friend likened the situation to only being able to listen to your iPod if its powered by a licensed 8-track player's power supply.
Posted Tue, Jul 31, 12:16 p.m. Inappropriate
As they say in Parliament, "hear hear"
I have basic cable - not good enough for Comcast. But the good news is that I can pay more, receive a box in the mail, hook it up to my tv, and get more stations I don't want to watch so that I can view the Olympics online.
I did this for the World Cup the last few times but then you have to drive the box back to a Comcast office to go back to the basic rate.
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