| How to Watch the Olympics Online Jul 28th 2012, 08:00 The Opening Ceremony for the 2012 London Summer Games [1] is on July 27th, and all eyes will be on London as athletes from around the world compete in these historic events. Here's how to watch the events online to work around time differences and work schedules. Steps - Check out the London 2012 Schedule. Make note of when your favorite events will be taking place.
- Be sure to account for the time difference. London is currently on British Summer Time, which is one hour ahead of Greenwich Mean Time. So if you live on the eastern seaboard in the U.S., 1 p.m. in London will be 6 a.m. in Boston.
- Find the method section for your country. Below are a few different ways to watch the Olympics based on where you live.
- Note that online coverage from the below sites may only work in the originating country or region of each site. If you cannot view videos from these sites, you will need to mask your IP or find an alternative site.
Watching in the U.S. - Watch the olympics on NBC.com. If you're in the United States, NBC is the official broadcast partner of the 2012 Olympic Games. They will be offering the broadcast version, online streaming content of all the events, and thousands of hours of replays — all in HD quality. If you have multiple devices, you can even keep track of several events at once!
- There are a couple of flies in the ointment, however. NBC has decided that if you wish to watch the Olympics or stream through their Olympics site (NBCOlympics.com/LiveExtra), you must be a cable subscriber with one of their partner providers. If you are a cable subscriber, you're in great shape. Just visit the NBC Olympics site, click the big red button, and log in. You will only need to do this once.
- NBC will not be streaming every event — some will be television-only. They've provided a convenient way to get local listings that should help you plan your viewing schedule.
- All NBC streams will require the Microsoft Silverlight plugin. Check your system beforehand, so that you don't sit down in front of your laptop with a bag of chips and a beer, only to be disappointed.
- NBC is also providing mobile and tablet apps to follow the games both for iOS devices — iPhone and iPad — and Android devices. This is the same content they're offering on their site: highlight clips. But they are in QuickTime, so you will not need Silverlight.
Watching in the UK - Watch the Olympics via the BBC. Visit http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/olympics/2012/live-video.
- You must be in the UK to watch this BBC stream. If you're not in the UK and you'd still like to watch it, you can use a proxy IP address to pretend you're there. Check out this article.
Watching in Australia - Catch NINE Network's coverage of the games. Go to http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/london-olympics for Australian coverage.
- Click the Video tab at the top.
- Download Microsoft Silverlight if you don't already have it. Silverlight is required to watch video via NINE Network.
Watching in Canada - Get CTV coverage of the Olympics. Go to http://www.ctvolympics.ca/.
- Click Watch Now in the upper-left corner.
- Download Microsoft Silverlight, if you haven't already. Silverlight is required to watch coverage via CTV.
Watching in French Canada - Watch French Canadian coverage through CTV. Visit http://www.rdsolympiques.ca/.
- Download Microsoft Silverlight, if you haven't already. Silverlight is required to watch coverage via CTV.
Watching in France - Get games coverage through FranceTV. Visit http://www.francetv.fr/sport/les-jeux-olympiques-2012/direct.
Watching on YouTube - Watch the games on NBC's YouTube feed. Both the IOC and NBC are offering video highlights of the games on YouTube. In the case of the IOC YouTube channel, they are also offering videos of historic moments in Olympic history.
- Follow the Olympics on Facebook. Neither Facebook nor Twitter will be offering live feeds, but both will be constantly updated by NBC, fans, and every news source in the world.
- Facebook offers the NBC Olympics page, including exclusive content, fan commentary, and more.
- Follow NBCOlympics on Twitter to keep up with events, moment by moment.
Downloading Apps - Get the Official London 2012 Join In app. The Join In app can be installed on your iPhone, Android, or Blackberry, and includes in-depth information and guides for the games.
- Download the Official London 2012 Results app. The Results app will give you instant access to Olympic scores, as well as bios for all the athletes participating in the games.
Unofficial Methods - Watch it on alternative video feeds. Alternatives such as Justin.tv offer video feeds from broadcasters around the world.
- Watch from other countries. Because the IOC has broadcast-rights agreements around the world, Internet surfers in virtually every country will be able to access and stream video.
- Eurovision requires that you are watching from within the EBU (European Broadcasting Union), and should you meet that requirement, is offering live coverage of all major events, for free. (Clicking the Eurovision link at the beginning of this paragraph will generate an error if you're not in the EBU or behind a proxy)
- CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) will be offering video streams, interviews, and more.
- Yahoo7 is Australia's official Olympic portal. It will also be offering video, behind-the-scenes coverage, and other special features.
- If you're not actually in another country, you can try using a proxy to make it look like you are to the streaming servers. Using your favorite search engine, locate a free proxy address by searching for "proxy list." Find an IP address for the country of your choice, then follow this guide to set up your computer to sneak in the back door. If you choose a proxy in the EBU, you can test it with the link above.
View Past Games - Access the IOC archive. To view the highlights of previous Olympic Games, the International Olympic Committee has an "archive" of previous Olympic Games from which videos of highlights can be accessed.
- Go to the Olympic Games section of the IOC website at: http://www.olympic.org/uk/games/index_uk.asp .
- Click on the Olympic Games that you wish to view in the "Past Olympics" section of the page.
- Locate the "Videos" section.
- Choose the video you wish to view.
- Search the archives of a specific country. Alternatively, a number of countries keep individual country records online via archival or special events sites.
Tips - In general, you'll probably find that online viewing won't be as captivating or fulfilling as watching the events on a large TV screen. The suggestions here are recommendations mainly for catching up on missed events.
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