NBC demands that you have cable!

I have been wondering about this. If I am in an area outside my cable company (Cox) and in an area where Time Warner or other Cable company has the monopoly, will I be able to watch the Olympic webstreams on nbcolympics.com?

Trust me if you could see it, by the time the Track events roll around you will be so sick of the USA USA butt kissing and advertising you won't care.

Seems like you bend over not to get cable. Just pay the 60 bucks like everyone else and watch what you want instead of hopping from service to service and scouring the internet to see the OC.

hobo w/shotgun wrote:

Seems like you bend over not to get cable. Just pay the 60 bucks like everyone else and watch what you want instead of hopping from service to service and scouring the internet to see the OC.

you sound like you must be from a red state..

So get cable. What's the big deal about getting cable?

The Thing from Another Thing wrote:

So get cable. What's the big deal about getting cable?

I don't have cable. It's a huge expense. $1,000 a year on something I wouldn't use often and would only tempt me to live a sedentary life is not something I'm interested in.

Of course. You come across very naive in this post. You sign into the website for streaming using your cable companies log-in. It doesn't matter where you are.

2nd rate wrote:

I have been wondering about this. If I am in an area outside my cable company (Cox) and in an area where Time Warner or other Cable company has the monopoly, will I be able to watch the Olympic webstreams on nbcolympics.com?

dfadd wrote:

The Thing from Another Thing wrote:

So get cable. What's the big deal about getting cable?

I don't have cable. It's a huge expense. $1,000 a year on something I wouldn't use often and would only tempt me to live a sedentary life is not something I'm interested in.

Get it and then cancel it after the Olympics. Our cable is charged on a month to month basis so you are not paying a year's worth of service up front.

It does suck they control the Olympics like that but it won't cost you $1000 to watch.

I'm in the same boat...OTA only at the house. Cable seems like a waste. We were at a hotel last weekend for a few days. They had Direct TV...there was still nothing on that I really wanted to watch. I will admit that I take a hit when it comes to live TV broadcasts of sports as some of those are available only on cable, but I am fine with listening to radio broadcasts in those cases. Lot's of times I listen on the radio even if I do get the game/race on TV just so I can be doing other things instead of sitting on the couch.

I also don't have a TIVO/DVR...if I miss the latest episode of "Will and Grace" or whatever people watch these days I just have to try to carry on somehow.

Welcome to 2012

1. VPN - $75/yr and you can watch live Olympic streaming from UK.

2. Netflix &/or Hulu - $15/month and you get all the latest shows.

3. Digital antenna. Receive local news for free.

You do not need cable TV. It is right up there w/ a landline - an ancient relic marketers try to convince you is necessary.

NBC paid big bucks for the rights to the Olympics. Why should they give away live streaming coverage to people who do not subscribe to their cable channels?

Davy Davy wrote:

From NBColympics.com:

"With a cable, satellite or telco TV subscription that includes MSNBC and CNBC, you can access live streams of EVERY Olympic event."

According to a quote within your own post, you do not have to have cable.

Precious Roy wrote:

NBC paid big bucks for the rights to the Olympics. Why should they give away live streaming coverage to people who do not subscribe to their cable channels?

4yrs ago when I was living in Taiwan, I got all the unedited feeds +200 of them for the PEK Olympics (The Taiwan telecom provider got them for free as a "domestic" distribution). I could watch any raw feed of any event. There were 4 for T&F. I realized then that NBC and others are still packaging the Olympics like it was the Donnie & Marie show. They are not going for the fat tails (us), they are trying to capture the middle.

So the sales and marketing of the Olympics is not designed to monetize all of those +200 feeds. It is sold as a single package, to the highest bidder. Every night, the 3-5 hrs the viewer sees is culled from thousands of hours of events.

It is only a matter of time before those w/ the rights realize they can make a lot more money selling individual rights access to the fat tails. Then we will be able to see all the feeds - the warmup track, the tunnel, etc. It is very cool to watch.

Think about how much people will pay to watch dressage. Then you get an idea of how this can be monetized.

Cable is the biggest ripoff in the western world. You are forced to buy 200-300 channels; half of them are infomercials, and you only want to watch about 8-12 of them regularly. The cable companies' business model is doomed. Most smart people jumped off that train a while ago.

The smart choice is to use an OTA for the networks and sign up for netflix and huluplus ($8/month for each). You'll never miss cable, trust me.

It's easy enough to get a free proxy server that tricks evil corporations into thinking that you're local so that you can watch the shows that you want to watch. I will watch EVERY SINGLE TRACK RACE that I want to in the olympics, and I will not pay one penny to NBC!

Lyndon LaRouche wrote:

Welcome to 2012

1. VPN - $75/yr and you can watch live Olympic streaming from UK.

2. Netflix &/or Hulu - $15/month and you get all the latest shows.

3. Digital antenna. Receive local news for free.

You do not need cable TV. It is right up there w/ a landline - an ancient relic marketers try to convince you is necessary.

Best concise definition about how to watch tv today!

The NBA, MLB, NFL, and NCAA all "demand" that you have cable or satellite also.

The broadcasters pay huge amounts of money for these events and they want to deliver it in a way that lets them make back their money.

but nbc may pay money for the rights,

but who sold the rights,

the olympics are supposed to be about the whole free world coming together.

I just get over-the-air TV, too. I'll watch whatever NBC shows.....my only worry is wondering how many times I'll puke after hearing Bob Costas go on about some boring special interest story.

What's new? wrote:

The NBA, MLB, NFL, and NCAA all "demand" that you have cable or satellite also.

The broadcasters pay huge amounts of money for these events and they want to deliver it in a way that lets them make back their money.

Well, just as airlines cut out the middleman (aka travel agencies) the broadcasters can also cut out the middleman (cable companies), by selling directly to customers!

If I want to watch the Yankees, I can pay for the YES network. If the PGA wants to charge me to watch golf, then I can pay for pgagour.com. If I want to watch the NBA (hahahahahaha) I could just read the local crime reports to keep up.

The point is, why should I bankroll the fat cats who own the cable companies if I just want to watch a targeted set of shows? I JUST WANT TO PAY FOR WHAT I WATCH!

The dam has already been breached! If you're paying $83.65/month for cable, you're paying for some rich as*hole's summer in the Hamptons! Get off your butt and get off the gravy train!