Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online
Countless sports fans will look for video coverage of the Olympic games online while trapped in their cubicles this week, and chances are at least some of them won’t head to NBC’s official web site but will try their luck elsewhere. In fact, NBC’s decision to delay the online video coverage of popular events for three hours is almost an invitation to waste a few hours of time on pirate sites and P2P TV forums.
The IOC is aware of this problem and is trying to address it by posting authorized videos on YouTube. Too bad these clips won’t be accessible to folks in the United States. So where will U.S. Olympians go? Hard to say, to be honest. There’s a plethora of options out there, ranging from Chinese P2P services to torrent sites. However, previous sports events, ranging from the recent Euro Cup soccer contest to your regular NBA game, can give us a first idea of what kind of pirate platforms might get the Beijing bump.
Here are five ways people will use to get their Olympics fix:
P2P Streaming. China is the motherland of P2P streaming, with almost a dozen vendors offering live TV transmissions. The leading Chinese P2P TV platform PPLive is officially licensed to show the games — but only to an audience within China. PPLive told us it will restrict the transmissions to IP addresses from within the country. Hardcore fans might want to try to access the transmissions through a Chinese proxy server, but the chances this will work for a bigger audience are rather slim. After all, people usually tend to use proxy servers to access web sites outside of the PRC. Of course, there are other companies that seem to care less about filters and licenses. Both soccer and NBA fans have previously reported success with PPStream, PPMate, Sopcast, TVUPlayer and TVKoo.
Live video sites. Move over, Chris Pirillo: Streaming video hosters like Ustream, Stickam and Justin.tv will see a bunch of people trying to relay TV coverage of the games. The sites will probably try to shut down some of these efforts, but there’s a good chance that some will fall through the cracks. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see new kinds of spot coverage coming right out of someone’s living room, Mystery Science Theater-style?
YouTube. Granted, the official Olympics coverage will not be available to visitors with States-based IP addresses. But that won’t stop users that access YouTube through a proxy server based in India or any of the other 76 countries that have access to the IOC channel. Users will also upload excerpts and highlights from the competitions on their own. Google will try to filter these submissions, but, as Liz already noted, those filters won’t catch everything.
Torrent sites. BitTorrent has long been a good option for time-shifting TV, with some shows even finding their way online between the East Coast and the West Coast premiere, so we’ll likely see quite a few Olympic TV moments on torrent sites as well. Torrents should pop up on major sites like Mininova and The Pirate Bay as well as specialized, invite-only communities like Sportbit.org within hours of the major competitions. Just don’t expect a cheerful Pirate Bay doodle. Site admin Peter Sunde aka Brokep has announced on his blog that he doesn’t want to help out the Chinese government by drawing attention to the games: “In my opinion the Olympics should never be held in a country like that.”
Foreign TV. The BBC is broadcasting the Olympics online — with up to seven live streams, no less — and broadcasters in other countries will offer their own coverage on the web as well, oftentimes using fewer technical hurdles than NBC. Granted, most of these streams will be protected by IP filters, but once again, proxy servers should be able to solve this problem. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if someone figures out a way to access a stream of some obscure Russian TV station without any proxy.
We’ll follow up on this list once the games get going.
Sponsor Gallery
Recent
GigaOM Network
© 2008 The GigaOM Network. Powered by WordPress.com. Marketing consulting by ACS.
[...] Edit Staff, Tuesday, August 5, 2008 at 3:13 PM PT Comments (0) NewTeeVee — Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online [...]
GigaNET: Olympics Online, Green Power, Trial Accounts - GigaOM on August 5th, 2008 at 3:13 pm - Permalink
[...] Source: newteevee.com [...]
Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online « mtippett on August 5th, 2008 at 5:00 pm - Permalink
[...] Source: newteevee.com [...]
Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online « The Social Graph on August 5th, 2008 at 5:02 pm - Permalink
Janko, could you email me please, I may have some info you’d be interested in…
Scott Wallace on August 5th, 2008 at 5:33 pm - Permalink
Make sure you check out MYP2P for a full schedule of Pirate Olympics and Sports Streams .
http://www.myp2p.eu/
NewTeeVee Story on MyP2P
http://newteevee.com/2007/04/02/myp2p-index-of-live-sports/
Matt_ on August 5th, 2008 at 6:46 pm - Permalink
Coolness, I like anything pirated. Works for me.
JT
http://www.Ultimate-Anonymity.com
JIm Jones on August 6th, 2008 at 5:44 am - Permalink
http://www.allercheap.com
cambeyk on August 6th, 2008 at 6:54 am - Permalink
[...] a great article over at NewTeeVee about how to pirate the Olympic [...]
Pirating the Olympic Games | CaptainMSG on August 6th, 2008 at 8:36 am - Permalink
First Olympic piracy lawsuit: CCTV sues Google-backed Xunlei…
he Google-backed Chinese P2P platform Xunlei got sued by CCTV for copyright infringement related to the Olympics. CCTV alleges that Xunlei broadcasted video of the Olympic torch relay without the network’s permission. (…)…
P2P Blog on August 6th, 2008 at 11:53 am - Permalink
Beijing Olympics live stream
http://www.aelling.lir.dk/public
click on the tv player on the site, and select “sport”
and select one of the olympics stream, and click the play button.
aelling on August 6th, 2008 at 3:05 pm - Permalink
http://www.aelling.lir.dk/public/tv-player-flip4mac.htm
For Macs use that link - via: aelling’s earlier comment
cheers
macewan on August 6th, 2008 at 4:27 pm - Permalink
[...] 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online Here are five ways people can use to get their Olympics fix: P2P Streaming. China is the motherland of P2P streaming, with almost a dozen vendors offering live TV transmissions. The leading Chinese P2P TV platform PPLive is officially licensed to show the games — but only to an audience within China. PPLive told us it will restrict the transmissions to IP addresses from within the country. Hardcore fans might want to try to access the transmissions through a Chinese proxy server, but the chances this will work for a bigger audience are rather slim. After all, people usually tend to use proxy servers to access web sites outside of the PRC. Of course, there are other companies that seem to care less about filters and licenses. Both soccer and NBA fans have previously reported success with PPStream, PPMate, Sopcast, TVUPlayer and TVKoo. Live video sites. Move over, Chris Pirillo: Streaming video hosters like Ustream, Stickam and Justin.tv will see a bunch of people trying to relay TV coverage of the games. The sites will probably try to shut down some of these efforts, but there’s a good chance that some will fall through the cracks. Who knows, maybe we’ll even see new kinds of spot coverage coming right out of someone’s living room, Mystery Science Theater-style? YouTube. Granted, the official Olympics coverage will not be available to visitors with States-based IP addresses. But that won’t stop users that access YouTube through a proxy server based in India or any of the other 76 countries that have access to the IOC channel. Users will also upload excerpts and highlights from the competitions on their own. Google will try to filter these submissions, but, as Liz already noted, those filters won’t catch everything. Torrent sites. BitTorrent has long been a good option for time-shifting TV, with some shows even finding their way online between the East Coast and the West Coast premiere, so we’ll likely see quite a few Olympic TV moments on torrent sites as well. Torrents should pop up on major sites like Mininova and The Pirate Bay as well as specialized, invite-only communities like Sportbit.org within hours of the major competitions. Just don’t expect a cheerful Pirate Bay doodle. Site admin Peter Sunde aka Brokep has announced on his blog that he doesn’t want to help out the Chinese government by drawing attention to the games: “In my opinion the Olympics should never be held in a country like that.” Foreign TV. The BBC is broadcasting the Olympics online — with up to seven live streams, no less — and broadcasters in other countries will offer their own coverage on the web as well, oftentimes using fewer technical hurdles than NBC. Granted, most of these streams will be protected by IP filters, but once again, proxy servers should be able to solve this problem. And I wouldn’t be too surprised if someone figures out a way to access a stream of some obscure Russian TV station without any proxy. source : 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online [...]
5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online - Hong Kong on August 6th, 2008 at 5:38 pm - Permalink
We will being do it too, we’re going to syndicate some wink ways to do it - we do the hard work, you just check us out and watch!
Watch Olympics on August 6th, 2008 at 7:57 pm - Permalink
[...] will you watch the Olympics? Here is a great article on stealing the Olympics. Article - Pirate Olympics It sounds like NBC is going to delay broadcasts 3 hrs. So If the Soccer game is on at 2:00 I [...]
Jimiz.net - Jim Becher on the web » Blog Archive » Watching the Olympics - Home of IIS Reporter on August 6th, 2008 at 11:12 pm - Permalink
[...] Source [New Tee Vee] [...]
The Pirate Olympics : Webmaster Roadmap on August 7th, 2008 at 12:13 am - Permalink
Yeaah!
Watch 2008 Beijing Olympics online at THIS_HIGH_QUALITY_STREAM
gffgfgfgf on August 7th, 2008 at 9:14 am - Permalink
[...] da prova (requer Google Earth). Clique na imagem para abrir. http://magliarosa.wordpress.com Pirate Olympics (nome sugestivo): caminhos alternativos para assistir aos Jogos. ITSGAMETIME Vídeos do ciclismo [...]
Jogos Olímpicos de Pequim - AO VIVO (1) « Maglia Rosa on August 7th, 2008 at 10:39 am - Permalink
olympics is fun
pinay sexy on August 7th, 2008 at 2:44 pm - Permalink
[...] a sua página iGoogle. Já se você está tentando assistir a abertura e alguns jogos online, o Newteevee tem um post sugestivo (Pirate Olympics) com cinco alternativas que podem funcionar para você, por [...]
Gulp /* desenvolvimento e diversão */ » Blog Archive » Google Summer Games 2008 on August 8th, 2008 at 4:14 am - Permalink
[...] Fuente: newteevee [...]
5 alternativas para ver las Olimpiadas de Beijing 2008 por Internet | Geekets on August 8th, 2008 at 4:27 am - Permalink
[...] Video Clips — nbc Beijing LIVE — eurovisionsports.tv (Europa e seus territórios) Pirate Olympics: 5 Caminhos alternativos para assistir ao vivo — newteevee Share the Olympic Stream — itsgametime.tv Live Coverage Beijing 2008 — [...]
Jogos Olimpícos de Pequim - AO VIVO (2) « Maglia Rosa on August 8th, 2008 at 4:29 am - Permalink
cool… thanks for this info mate.
United Voices on August 8th, 2008 at 6:43 am - Permalink
okie… this is cool stuff… ppl won’t miss the Olympics being in their office.
sajansan on August 8th, 2008 at 6:43 am - Permalink
[...] Olympics Live on Justin.tv As we’ve been writing all week, tape delays are an excellent way to ensure that people find a way around the official means to [...]
Beijing Olympics Live on Justin.tv « NewTeeVee on August 8th, 2008 at 10:10 am - Permalink
[...] Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online « NewTeeVee - Somebody should clue NBC in that this is 2008, all this restricting viewing by country crap is bogus. [...]
O’DonnellWeb - Polluting the homeschool blogosphere since 2001 » Blog Archive » Elsewhere on the Internet (August 8th 14:38) on August 8th, 2008 at 12:02 pm - Permalink
First I thank you for this a good site, and this a useful link to watch the olympics games online
http://satellite-tv-online.blogspot.com/2008/08/watch-beijing-2008-online.html
Live Tv on August 8th, 2008 at 1:46 pm - Permalink
[...] world broadcasters to find a way to make the Olympics accesible to you, you might be interested in this article on the “alternative” means of watching the events. You can leave a comment, or [...]
Blacknell.net » The Olympics: Make It What You Want It To Be on August 8th, 2008 at 3:54 pm - Permalink
[...] Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online « NewTeeVee You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. [...]
links for 2008-08-08 [delicious.com] - Tempus Fugit on August 8th, 2008 at 4:35 pm - Permalink
I found this excellent web site that has free live video and audio streaming of all Oylmpic events worldwide. Another great thing is that there’s nothing to download or install, and the feeds are excellent quality.
Beijing 2008 Olympics LIVE Online Coverage
Linda Johnson on August 8th, 2008 at 10:16 pm - Permalink
[...] Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online « NewTeeVee - [...]
Bookmarks for August 6th through August 9th - Tempus Fugit on August 9th, 2008 at 3:24 am - Permalink
[...] of them won’t head to NBC’s official web site but will try their luck elsewhere.” Read: Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online for a list of alternative ways to experience the [...]
Smart Mobs » Blog Archive » Alternative 2008 Olympic Coverage on August 9th, 2008 at 6:12 am - Permalink
Watch the olympics live here with your computer. Its free if you have Yahoo bar
http://hothot.ath.cx:8080/special/olympics.html
kevin on August 9th, 2008 at 3:46 pm - Permalink
Wow, a pirate with a pseudo conscience.
Hey, Pete-hole,
Find a list of the all the countries the US has invaded. bombed and brought death since WW2. You can skip the ones they helped overthrow like Chile and so on. Just stick to military intervention.
Then once you read this long list come back and tell me about China.
No other country has come close to the US, not even nazi germany.
rob enderle on August 9th, 2008 at 7:49 pm - Permalink
[...] some of them won’t head to NBC’s official web site but will try their luck elsewhere.” Read: Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways to Watch the Olympics Online for a list of alternative ways to experience the [...]
myninjaplease -> Alternative 2008 Olympic Coverage on August 9th, 2008 at 8:22 pm - Permalink
all the links can be found at
http://beijing-olympic-online.blogspot.com/
thank you
find avoda on August 9th, 2008 at 10:59 pm - Permalink
[...] post on NewTeeVee on alternative coverage of the Olympics Countless sports fans will look for video coverage of the Olympic games online while trapped in thei… In fact, NBC’s decision to delay the online video coverage of popular events for three hours is [...]
BroadDev - Unified Communications, Virtualization, Security, and Web 2.0 » Pirate Olympic Coverage - 5 Ways to Get Live Coverage on August 10th, 2008 at 7:48 am - Permalink
[...] left me empty-handed. PPLive, for example, is an official licensing partner of CCTV. The company told us last week that it was going to block access to all CCTV stations for viewers from outside of China, and it [...]
Pirating the Olympics via P2P TV: An Experiment « NewTeeVee on August 11th, 2008 at 10:01 pm - Permalink
[...] How to Pirate the Olympics Great idea, not only turn major media conglomerates who paid major buck to get exclusive access to feeds, but at the same time toss a little gas onto the China-is-an-international-hub-of-piracy flame. My guess though, NewTeeVee doesn’t give a crap about any of that; and if the once did, they certainly don’t anymore. [...]
ath1337 » Blog Archive » Top 7 Sites Likely to Get Censored By China After the Olympics on August 13th, 2008 at 9:25 am - Permalink
[...] on various proxy servers, torrents, ad hoc video hosting and their ilk are still available for the pirate-minded. That should not be necessary though, as CBC has made it too easy for folks to legitimately stream [...]
The 2008 Digital Olympics « Canada’s World on August 20th, 2008 at 3:36 am - Permalink
New adress to aelling online tv
http://www.aelling-online-tv.dk/public
aelling on August 22nd, 2008 at 7:12 am - Permalink
cool stuff
hot hatches on September 25th, 2008 at 7:33 am - Permalink