The 100-meter dash and other cherished Olympic moments will for the first time be beamed to computers and mobile phones during the Athens games. But while many Europeans will be able to see them live on the Internet, Americans will have to settle for tape delay.
After conducting trials involving about 100,000 homes during the past two games, the International Olympic Committee is permitting more than a dozen broadcasters to show video of the Aug. 13-29 Olympics online.
But the footage will be highly restricted to protect lucrative broadcast contracts, which are sold by territory -- US$793 million paid by NBC alone. Web sites must employ technology to block viewers from outside their home countries, so US Web surfers won't benefit from the BBC's live coverage. They'll have to settle for highlights posted after NBC broadcasts, which are already largely tape-delayed.
On top of that, US viewers must verify their identity using a credit card from Visa -- an NBC advertiser -- though they will not be charged. Not a Visa cardholder? You're out of luck.
Some European broadcasters are limiting video to high-speed, broadband customers only, seeking to keep foreigners from connecting via international phone calls.
Norwegians, meanwhile, must be subscribers of one of three main Internet service providers.
"Of course you get frustrated you can't do everything you want, but compared to four years ago, this is incredibly much better," said Kristian Elster of Norwegian broadcaster NRK.
He anticipates complaints from Norwegians abroad who must rely on another country's television coverage and not his Web site to view events popular in Norway or featuring such Norwegian athletes as rower Olaf Tufte.
News sites not affiliated with official broadcasters may not carry any competition video at all -- even though TV stations that haven't bought rights can show three highlight segments a day of up to 2 minutes apiece. The exception is for some news conferences, but only with a 30-minute delay.
European broadcasters, in particular, had pressed for online rights as they expanded their general Web offerings, and NBC eased its resistance to putting video online after seeing the broadband audience grow.
"We pay a lot of money for the rights," said Andrew Thompson, head of new media for BBC Sports. "It's our duty to try to offer these rights wherever, whenever, however they [Britons] want to get hold of them."
Marc Joerg of the European Broadcasting Union, which paid nearly US$400 million for the BBC and other European networks to carry the games, said the IOC authorized online video this spring after NBC and the Europeans agreed on technical standards to keep footage within their respective geographic boundaries.
Fans are the ultimate winners, Joerg said. Even with some 12,000 hours of total TV coverage across Europe, "you cannot cover all," he said. "Broadband and mobile technology can complement the traditional television coverage."
NBC will offer clips of key events in every sport and a daily highlights package at NBCOlympics.com. Footage will appear only after it is broadcast -- NBC plans 1,210 hours of coverage spread across NBC, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo, USA, Telemundo and a high-definition channel.
Brief highlights from NBC will also be available in the US for customers of AT&T Wireless Inc's mMode information service.
Two technology companies will encrypt the video and help NBC's Web site keep out non-Americans. The computer's Internet address will be checked to make sure it goes through a US service provider. The site will also measure how long it takes data to travel and will thus weed out visitors from afar.
While NBC, whose eastern viewers are seven hours behind Athens, will show only highlights post-broadcast, others plan live coverage -- also for free.
In the United Kingdom, the BBC Web site will simulcast five television feeds and carry as many as 30 highlights at a time.
The Web site for Dutch broadcaster NOS will show the main television feed and make three others available exclusively to broadband customers.
Norway's NRK, threatened with expulsion from Sydney after mistakenly running Olympic video online in 2000, will simulcast the TV coverage and plans to show extras -- possibly including less-popular sports.
"Field hockey is completely uninteresting for most Norwegians but it's pretty big in Pakistan," Elster said.
Thus, NRK is considering such coverage online for its Pakistani minority in Oslo.
But Swedish television SVT plans only a handful of highlight clips on the Web. Ulf Nilsson, its online sports editor, said the site ran out of funds for more because setting up barriers to foreign surfers was so expensive.
Ironically, customers of Swedish mobile provider TeliaSonera, however, will be able to view SVT's footage live wherever they are -- and they can choose among 20 to 30 clips if they have the right phones.
Of course if they are outside of Sweden, roaming charges will make that expensive.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
THUGGISH BEHAVIOR: Encouraging people to report independence supporters is another intimidation tactic that threatens cross-strait peace, the state department said China setting up an online system for reporting “Taiwanese independence” advocates is an “irresponsible and reprehensible” act, a US government spokesperson said on Friday. “China’s call for private individuals to report on alleged ‘persecution or suppression’ by supposed ‘Taiwan independence henchmen and accomplices’ is irresponsible and reprehensible,” an unnamed US Department of State spokesperson told the Central News Agency in an e-mail. The move is part of Beijing’s “intimidation campaign” against Taiwan and its supporters, and is “threatening free speech around the world, destabilizing the Indo-Pacific region, and deliberately eroding the cross-strait status quo,” the spokesperson said. The Chinese Communist Party’s “threats
RSS