NOTE: Update for watching the 2010 Winter Olympics online: Click here.
NBC will bring 2200 hours of Beijing Olympics streaming video to the web, starting today. But Americans will miss some of the best parts. Why? Because NBC, which has exclusive rights to the games in the United States, still makes a whole lot more serving up TV ads than Web ads. So for many of the most-anticipated events (volleyball, gymnastics, swimming, boxing) US-based viewers have to either watch on TV (often on tape-delay) ... or they will have to get sneaky.
Easiest steps first: Figure out when the event you want to watch is on (the NY Times has an excellent event tracker for this) and then try to figure out if it's on nbcolympics.com (NBC's broadcast schedule here). You'll also need to download Microsoft Silverlight, which NBC.com requires to watch the game. We were ready to complain about that, but found it fairly painless, as these things go.
So what if NBC doesn't have what you want? Then you're going to have to be comfortable about skirting some rules.
One straightforward alternative: Use streaming and P2P sites that are willing to serve up TV feeds. Some options that have worked for our readers in the past:
NOS (Dutch)
Veetle.com
Myp2p.eu
A more convoluted option: Watch video that's supposed to be online, but not for your eyes. As we've noted, for instance, YouTube has a dedicated channel -- but only for users outside the U.S. In order to watch it, you'll need to trick YouTube into thinking that you're watching from somewhere else. That means you'll have to configure your browser to use a proxy server and then redirect your Internet connection through a country on YouTube's whitelist like South Korea. This will involve multiple steps, but we've tried to walk you through it here.
Beyond YouTube, the BBC promises seven streaming Internet feeds for UK-based websurfers (or those using UK-based proxies). There's also the CBC for "Canadians" and the ABC for "Australians"... you get the idea.
Got further tips or tricks to share? Let us know in comments, or via our anonymous tip box. We'll keep updating this post as we hear from you.
UPDATE: New list of links for streaming coverage.
See also: NBC's Online Olympics Policy: Big Win For Pirate P2P Sites
NBC U Olympic Schedule: Table Tennis Live Online, Gymnastics On Tape Delay
Three Days and Counting Until NBC Blows Olympics Coverage
YouTube At The Olympics: Exclusive Video You Can't Watch
