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Sunday, July 29, 2012

Where To Watch The London 2012 Olympics

There's been a lot of searching on the internet by people looking for ways to watch the 2012 London Olympics. I've done a little research and find there's more then one way to see Olympic games. This is by no means a complete listing of sources, and it will be updated if I become aware of other sources. If you have found coverage that isn't listed here, please feel free to update this information by adding a comment.


So, lets look at the sources I've found for 2012 Olympics Coverage!

Source 1: The NBC Networks
If you're in the USA, NBC (a division of Comcast, of course!) is the official carrier of the Olympics. In addition to extensive coverage on the networks of NBC-Universal, including NBC, NBC Sports Network, MSNBC, CNBC, Bravo, two HD specialty channels and a 3D channel, paying subscribers can stay connected to the London Summer Olympic Games wherever they go exclusively via NBCOlympics.com, and the NBC Olympics and NBC Olympics Live Extra apps available to mobile and tablet users. If you have a TV Antenna, you should be able to watch the Olympics on your local NBC affiliate. If you have even the most basic of pay TV services, you should also get NBC. What other coverage you will get from your provider is dependent on what package you have and what your provider chooses to provide. Another pay TV channel that has Olympics coverage is Universal Sports. Until last year, NBC - Universal Sports was a broadcast network available to millions of  viewers for free using a TV Antenna. In the last Olympics, NBC-US provided great coverage of events that were not on the NBC schedule. With the takeover of NBC by Comcast, NBC-US became a pay tv network, and also recently removed the ability to pay for their content online. So now the only way to watch Universal Sports Olympic coverage is to have it in your pay TV package. To watch ANY NBC Olympic coverage online requires you to log in with your user account credentials from your Pay TV provider. The same is true for any NBC online access - in other words, to watch any NBC Olympics coverage online, you must already be paying for it!

 Source 2: International and Foreign Language Networks
NBC may have the broadcast rights for the USA locked down, but other countries also have networks with broadcast rights to the games. If you live along the Canadian border, you may have enjoyed coverage from CBC in the past. However, CBC was outbid by CTV for this year's Olympics. So you will need to see if your local pay TV system carries this network, or if you have an Antenna, you'll nee to see if there is an affiliate that you can watch. There's a list of CTV affiliates HERE: http://www.ctv.ca/About/Corporate-Info/Local-Affiliates.aspx . In Mexico, Televisa has rights to the games, so if you are along the Mexican / US border you will want to check with your cable provider or see if there is an affiliate that you can receive with an Antenna. Televisa provides programming throughout Mexico through four networks through local affiliates. 253 Mexican local television stations air programming from all four terrestrial networks. The four Televisa networks are:
Network Flagship Programming
Canal de las Estrellas XEW 2 general programming, sports, first-run telenovelas, and news
Canal 5 XHGC 5 youth-oriented programming, American series, and movies
Galavisión XEQ 9 telenovelas reruns, sports, and comedy shows
FOROtv XHTV 4 all news channel, talk, and debate programming

 In the USA, the Telemundo network is available free with a TV Antenna or on most cable systems in the most basic tier. It is an NBC network, and therefore is broadcasting Olympic coverage - in Spanish.

From Wikipedia, here is a list of other countries Olympic Broadcasters, some of which you may have in your Pay TV package or have access to on the internet or through a streaming device.

Territory Broadcaster Ref
 Albania RTSH [18]
 Algeria ENTV [18]
 Angola [18]
 Argentina [19][20]
 Asia [6][21]
 Australia [4][22][23][24]
 Austria ORF [25]
 Azerbaijan İTV [26]
 Bahamas
  • ZNS
  • Cable Bahamas Limited
[27]
 Bahrain IAA [28]
 Barbados CBC [18]
 Belarus Belteleradio [29]
 Belize Channel 7 [18]
 Belgium [25]
 Benin ORTB [18]
 Bermuda Bermuda Cablevision [18]
 Bolivia Bolivisión [30]
 Bosnia and Herzegovina [25][31]
 British Virgin Islands CBN [18]
 Bulgaria BNT [32]
 Benin RTNB [18]
 Brazil [33][34][35]
 Cameroon CRTV [18]
 Canada [36][37][38]
 Caribbean
  • International Media Content Limited
  • SportsMax
[39]
 Central African Republic RTC [18]
 Chile [40]
 China CCTV [41]
 Chinese Taipei [42][43]
 Colombia Caracol TV [44]
 Cook Islands CITV [18]
 Costa Rica Repretel [45]
 Côte d'Ivoire RTI [18]
 Croatia [46][47]
 Cuba ICRT [48]
 Cyprus CyBC [49]
 Czech Republic ČT [50]
 Democratic Republic of the Congo RTNC [18]
 Denmark [25][51]
 Dominica SAT Telecoms [52]
 Dominican Republic Grupo Corripio [53]
 Ecuador [18]
 Egypt ERTU [18]
 El Salvador Telecorporación Salvadoreña [18]
 Estonia ETV [54]
 Ethiopia ETV [18]
 Europe [55][56]
 Fiji [57]
 Finland Yle [58]
 France France Télévisions [59]
 Gabon RTG [18]
 Gambia GRTS [18]
 Georgia GPB [25]
 Germany [60]
 Ghana GTV [18]
 Greece ERT [25]
 Grenada Grenada Broadcasting Network [61]
 Guatemala Televisión Guatemalteca [18]
 Guinea RTG [18]
 Guyana National Communications Network [18]
 Hong Kong [62][63]
 Hungary [18][64]
 Iceland RÚV [25]
 India Doordarshan [65]
 Indonesia [66][67]
 Iran GEM TV Group [68]
 Israel IBA [69]
 Italy [70][71]
 Ireland RTÉ [72]
 Jamaica
  • CVM Television
  • TVJ
[73][74]
 Japan [75][76]
 Jordan JTV [18]
 Kazakhstan [77]
 Kenya KBC [18]
 Latin America [78][79]
 Latvia LTV [80]
 Lithuania LRT [81]
 Luxembourg RTL Télé Lëtzebuerg [18]
 Macau [41][82]
 Macedonia MRT [18]
 Malaysia RTM [83]
 Malta TVM [18]
 Mauritania TVM [18]
 Mauritius MBC [84]
 Mexico Televisa [85]
 Middle East [86][87]
 Moldova TeleRadio-Moldova [25]
 Mongolia UBS [18]
 Montserrat Ptv7 [18]
 Montenegro RTCG [18]
 Morocco Arryadia [18]
 Mozambique TVM [18]
 Namibia [18]
 Netherlands NOS [88]
 New Zealand [89][90]
 Nicaragua Ratensa [18]
 Niue BCN [18]
 Nigeria [18][91]
 North Africa OSN [87]
 North Korea [9][92]
 Norway [93]
 Panama
  • Corporación Medcom
  • TVMax
[94][95]
 Paraguay
  • Paravisión
  • SNT Cerro Corá
[18]
 Peru América Televisión [96]
 Philippines [18][97][98][99][100]
 Poland [101][102]
 Portugal [103][104]
 Puerto Rico Puerto Rico TV [105][106]
 Romania [107][108]
 Russia [25][109]
 Saint Kitts and Nevis ZIZ [18]
 Samoa SBC [18]
 Senegal RTS [18]
 Serbia RTS [25]
 Seychelles SBC [18]
 Singapore [110][111]
 Slovakia RTVS [25]
 Slovenia RTVSLO [112]
 Solomon Islands One Television [18]
 South Africa [18][98][113]
 South Korea [9][114]
 South America [115][116]
 Sub-Saharan Africa [98][113][117]
 Sudan SSTV [18]
 Spain RTVE [118]
 Sri Lanka SLRC [119]
 Suriname STVS [18]
 Sweden SVT [120]
 Switzerland SRG SSR [121]
 Thailand [122]
 Togo TVT [18]
 Tonga Television Tonga [18]
 Trinidad and Tobago CCN TV6 [123]
 Tunisia Tunisia TV 1 [18]
 Turkey TRT [124]
 Ukraine NTKU [25]
 United Arab Emirates Abu Dhabi Sports Channel [125]
 United Kingdom BBC [126]
 United States [127][128][129]
 Uruguay [130][131]
 Venezuela [18][132][133]
 Vietnam VTV [134]
 Zambia Muvi TV [18]
 Zimbabwe ZBC [18]
^1 – Consortium formed by Bell Media, V, Rogers Media and ATN, with the broadcasts occurring on several properties of these companies (i.e.: CTV is owned by Bell Media and it will broadcast the games on FTA English-language television.).
^2 – It is a joint venture of NHK, Fuji Television, TBS TV, TV Asahi, TV Tokyo, NTV, and JAITS. Its functions are the same as the Canada's Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium.
^3 – Coverage on all smartphones across Japan, in cooperation with the Japan Consortium.
^4 – Coverage across Bolivia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Paraguay and Uruguay.
^5 – Internet and Aphone coverage across the Latin America.[135]
^6 – Coverage across Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
^7 – It is a joint venture of Channel 3, TV5, Channel 7, Modernine TV and NBT.
Please note that many of these sources may be geoblocked on the internet, so you will have to access them through a proxy server.

Source 3: The internet and Streaming Devices
NBC (aka Comcast) has worked really hard to prevent people who don't already pay them the money from watching anything but the NBC local affiliate coverage. In the last Olympics, anyone from the USA could access NBCs online coverage. Not so now. If you're looking for Olympics on the internet, try the websites of some of the international networks listed above. Note that most are geoblocked and will require you to use a proxy server. If you have an Internet Streaming Device like Roku Box or WD TV Live, explore those international channels you may have access to. On my Roku player, MummyBox has the BBC channels (although they are sometimes down) and I've heard there is some programming on Caribcast  also (UPDATE- I installed Caribcast, and it's Confirmed!). And don't forget random sources like JustinTV.

Source 4: FTA (FreeTo Air) Satellite
FTA satellite is another option that may allow you to view the Olympics. FTA is a Satellite TV System system that allows you to use a small dish and inexpensive receiver to watch satellite TV for free. While I haven't set up my own FTA Satellite TV System (yet!) and therefore have not checked for Olympics on FTA Satellite, chances are you will find something on if you have FTA TV. Check the channel list for FTA here: http://www.ftalist.com/master.php you can also find help at the Satellite Guys forum: http://www.satelliteguys.us/ - I have heard that middle eastern countries are good sources for coverage.

 Summary
As you can see there are many ways to watch the Olympics without Pay TV. Some of them are easy, many require a bit of work or computer savvy, and some are just plain dead ends. But, yes, chances are you can watch the Olympics if you try these sources.

Updates!
  1.  6pm MDT, July 30: BBC 1-4 on the MummyBox Roku channel (1006 - 1009) are down.

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