One of the biggest changes to Olympic coverage has been the deal where Comcast bought NBC. Two years ago you could just go on NBCOlympics.com & choose whatever video you wanted to watch & that was it. Just like ESPN 3.
But this year there has been a major change. Comcast now owns NBC, & because they will be doing live streaming, which wasn't the case in Beijing or Vancouver, you have to sign in.
It's similar to HBO Go. You have to choose your service provider (Comcast, Directv, Time Warner, etc.), & then log in through that website. The site verifies that you are a customer & then OK's your ability to watch. I did it this afternoon so I don't have to do it later. Now since the games haven't started, I don't know if I will have to log in everytime, like I have to to use HBO Go.
My issue with this is that I understand logging in to use HBO Go. It's a premium channel, & they don't want non-subscribers watching their shows for free. But why do this for NBC programming? Yes, it's the Olympics, but so what. I didn't have to do this two years ago for the Winter Olympics or four years ago for the last summer games. There was over a thousand hours of video on line & I watched a lot of stuff not on TV.
The other issue is this means cord cutters won't be allowed to watch at all because you need a cable or satellite account to watch online. Again I wonder if this would be the case if Comcast hadn't been allowed to buy NBC. Remember that the government put a lot of rules on Comcast to allow the deal. This was to avoid Comcast from say preventing Directv from having access to NBC programming.
So while I have the access, I wonder what will happen in the future.
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