If you know me--and let's face it, if you don't, I'm a little confused as to why you're here, but hey, whatever--you know that I live in England. You also know that I don't exactly love living here. Well, that's changed, at least for the duration of the Olympics (never mind the weather. The athletes probably won't drown. Probably.).
You also may or may not know about the weird institution in the UK known as the TV Licensing Agency. If you don't know about this archaic beast, so far as I can tell it's their job to send out letters demanding money that range from vaguely annoying to definite harassment to flat-out threatening. If you pay them, they stop for a year or so. The TV license fee is charged to households/private rooms,* and the revenue is used to fund the BBC, keeping it advert free.** The Boy and I don't pay a TV license, not because we're cheap or morally opposed to it or anything, but because we don't watch TV as it broadcasts.*** I finally got them to stop sending us letters by telling them we didn't need one. Been over a year and no one has come out to confirm this (surprise surprise) and no more letters. Go me.
But I digress. Since we moved and changed ISPs to non-sucky Virgin, our connection has improved immensely, although streaming is still dodgy, so I doubt live-streaming is possible. But that's ok. Because the BBC claims to be broadcasting the entirety of the Olympics. As in every event in every sport and every match, not just the semi/quarter/finals. They've put something like 20 additional stations on for the duration of the Olympics, and are broadcasting 15 hours a day. And though The Boy and I can't watch it here, we did download the BBC iPlayer Wii app. This means about 24 hours after broadcast we can watch events and coverage. Granted it's not live, but I don't care if I know who wins prior to seeing the event (which I will unless I stay completely off the internet). And it's also probably be broadcast before NBC decides to show it in the US--if they show it at all. If you've been following the Twitter hashtag #NBCfail (which is absolutely hilarious, by the way) you'll know that NBC is outdated and behind the times. They don't care about what their viewers want, and to make it even better, an exec in charge of their digital media posted this (she's since taken it down)
Classy. Real classy, and a great way to piss off your viewers even more. It's also interesting to note that someone who is supposed to be social media savvy marked it "+1" which is not a Twitter thing, but rather a Google+ approval. Not at all savvy.
The whole point of this post is simple. I don't love living in the UK most of the time, but at least we get our Olympics coverage properly. Yes, a lot of people think it's because we're the host country, but we also think that the success that the coverage is having will encourage the BBC to do this for all the future Olympics. I certainly hope so.
And for those people struggling in the US to get live coverage, or at least complete coverage, there are ways to access the BBC online (the proper BBC, not BBC America or BBC International) to get your fix, either live or at least complete events. Or events that NBC doesn't want to broadcast. If you wish to take that route, there are plenty of directions telling you how online (it's in a legal gray area, but not explicitly illegal), or you can drop me a message and I can try to help you. In the meantime, enjoy your shitty NBC coverage while I watch the (mostly ok****) BBC coverage, which includes commentators like John McEnroe, Michael Johnson, and Dame Kelly Holmes. You know, real athletes.
*For example, each dorm room would have to pay for a license because the individual rooms are separately keyed, but a house only needs one license to cover all the TVs in it.
**By advert free I mean free of advertising for car insurance and such. There's plenty of advertising for other BBC shows and channels. And I do mean plenty.
***Any live signal, regardless of how you watch it--live internet feed, mobile phone, cable/satellite/freeview box--makes you subject to needing a license. This isn't a problem for us because our phones suck, as does our internet connection. Besides, I don't know where to find live streams of most things on the web, for I've never bothered to refine that part of my web ninja-fu.
****During the early Beach Volleyball games on Saturday, the camera was showing player signs to the viewers. This would have been fine and interesting, except there are giant viewscreens in the Horseguards arena, so in effect the opposing team could "steal signs." Oops. At least they fixed that really fast.
