Slashdot Mirror
Net Still Not At Olympics
angkor writes "It's two years later and the net is still largely shut out of the Olympics It seems like we were talking about this in relation to the last Olympics yesterday."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
You'd think the Olympic board would be eager to establish an "Exclusive Internet Broadcasting" license to bring some more money their way...or at least up the price that the bidding networks paid.
mailto:<?=implode("@", array("chris", implode(".", array("php", "net"))))?>
In Canada it is legal to rebroadcast television that has already been broadcasted*. This is how the cable/satellite broadcasters are able to broadcast the Canadian networks. So why can't this apply to the net as well?
* <simpsons>with implied oral consent, not express written consent.</simpsons>
Granted, this is NBC we're talking about, (which has all but given up on nbci.com ) but many streams now feature ads before they start to run.
They themselves admit that sports, next to pr0n, drives traffic--so why not use the relationship NBC has with MSN (barf) to sell me a Team Canada Patrick Roy jersey after streaming to me his five best saves?
The Chinese will host in 2008.
Yes, I dig movie88.com too!To have a whole bunch of people with digital video cameras all sending video to the net via a wireless feed? With the size of cameras these days, it would be possible to hid them in coats, bags, etc. The unoffical "press" would than stream the video to a free-net type location-- or even put it right onto a file-sharing network. It wouldn't take long before the IOC would give up their rules against the internet... because they would be useless. Please, somebody start something like this. Isn't this what the internet is about?
toddg
Few people (read: International Olympic Committee) realize the power of the net. Those that do are often terriffied of it. The multi-million dollar corporations are as likely to be scared of internet broadcasts of the olympics as the IOC and justifiably so. The Olympics mean $$$$$$ and the threat of the net taking away money from the IOC and the television industry is real and growing everyday.
Eventually I believe all broadcasts of any kind (be it data, voice, radio, TV, etc.) will be linked to the net and this will disappear. As televisions and computers merge (a not-too-distant possibility in many wealthier households) television and internet companies will merge. We've already seen that with AOL/Time Warner haven't we?
When ABC, CBS, BBc, etc. begin to merge with broadband vendors, we'll see internet TV replace mainstream TV, but untill then, people with money will fight to keep the little man (in this case the net), out of his business.
Slackware forever. Honestly, what else would you trust when it absolutely positively has to be stable, secure, and easy
I distinctly remember watching a WIDE array of sports broadcast from the CBC's website, onto my family's ancient powermac 6100. Unsure of the year, but this must've been back in '98.
It was all barely bigger than a postage stamp, and the sound was bad, but yes, you COULD watch basically whatever you wanted.
That's really why this whole thing bothers me. The IOC isn't just preventing technology from going forward as fast as it should, but rather they have actively retarded the spread of webcasting.
So we pay the IOC $342 million in order to have the olympics happen here at all and then we get screwed on how we watch it - it seems for $342 million I should get a little more than that.
I wonder if amateur athletes could have a
GPL-like license for the depecition of
their image in competition? Anyone can show
images of the althlete in competition provided
that they don't restrict the ability of others
to distribute the image to others, something
like that.
jeff
I live in Salt Lake. As a citizen, I don't mind the world "shitting in my backyard" -- I'm no xenophobe and I welcome diversity. However, as a taxpayer, I've been quite outraged by most of the crap that's gone on these past few of years.
There's too much to bitch about, but my personal favorite was the $450,000 spent to give every bloody city employee an official 2002 Winter Games jacket.
Then there's all the cloak-and-dagger security bullshit going on around here. I work at the Univerity of Utah, and I'm working from home for most of February because it's too damned tough to get to campus! There's 3 black military choppers constantly flying overhead. A guy I work with was accosted by the Secret Service. He's foreign -- looks and sounds foreign -- and made the mistake of biking up to the hill overlooking the stadium to take a few digital snapshots. He was questioned, his pictures were deleted, and he was released.
Meanwhile, all of the on/off ramps into the city are totally un-guarded. Mostly industrial areas, the lots underneath these bridges are perfect places to park large trucks (which is normal anyway) full of explosives. I guess nobody cares about the mere visitors to Salt Lake -- only the corporate sponsors at the venues.
And what's it all for? So Budwiser and Nike can pimp their wares without any trouble. You really think that if this many people gathered for a non-commercial event (a protest perhaps), that they'd enforce a 45-mile radius no-fly zone around the event? No fucking way. This is all about selling stuff, people. I just feel bad for the businesses downtown that are effectly shut down due to the strict security perimeter.
If you want to read some independent local SLC journalism, I encourage you to read the City Weekly: http://www.avenews.com/index.html
Yeah -- I'm bitter. The TV in my house will be off for the month of February. The networks won't be getting my eyeballs (they lost them at Sydney).
Method of processing duck feet
Actually that's because every year, NBC simply decides that you only REALLY want to see any sport where Americans will probably (99.9% chance) get a medal, preferrably a gold.
Happily for you, this year an American seems to have a good chance at a biathalon medal, possibly a gold. So that means that most likley they will be broadcasting the biathalon to a much greater extent - or at least his portion of it. They had a longish ad about it last night after the opening ceremony which seems to indicate a good chance at least of some coverege.
Probably the coverage will be fairly short, but hopefully you'll see SOMETHING.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I think it's all about money and power.
.com failures have cast considerable doubt on the validity of using the Internet as a media outlet (particularly in the context of generating advertising revenue).
I'd be very surprised if the IOC didn't get a freaking ton of money from the "official" distribution of olympic broadcasting.
From the money side, the IOC can use the dough. We already know that they are funded in part by the media. The media want nothing more than to protect their interests and ability to sell advertising. I would guess that this is one of the reasons why there isn't a great deal, if any, Intenet coverage of the games (in a live format, anyhow).
As another poster has commented, there *were* live feeds several years ago of the summer olympics. What happened? I would suggest
Also, I imagine that there is considerable reluctance on the part of the reporting organizations to put out media that can easily be reproduced around the world without their consent.
I suppose I can't really blame them for the lack of interest in doing anything on the net. There's no significant monetary benefit to the networks distributing the information (at significant cost, mind you) on the net when they have guarantees on advertising and IOC revenues doing things traditionally. Besides, it helps to maintain the value of their current media outlets.
Anyhow, that's my 2 cents.
Acutally, we (I'm assuming you're also Canadian due to the reaction on Canada winning the gold in Bridge) have what's called Skills Canada. It's not quite so open as the Olympics, as the competitors must be under 22 years of age, and some events are restricted to high school students. It's not a total geek event, but it has it's share of tech events, such as website design, PC Software Specialists, PC Hardware and Networking, CADD and graphic design. Some of the non-techie events include plumbing, carpentry and even aircraft mechanics. These competitions take place annually, with provincials in every province. The winner of each provincial contest moves up to the Canadian Skills Competition. Every even-numbered year is a World Skills qualification year. The gold medallists from every event move up to Team Canada and go to the worlds the following year.
I've had the honor of representing New Brunswick for each of the 2 years we've sent a team to the Canadian Skills Competition in Web Design. The first year, my teammate and I placed 2nd, and last year we placed 4th. This is probably as close to a coding event as they'll have for now, but it's still an incredible event. The 2002 competition will be in Vancouver in late-May and/or early-June, and it's open to the public.
http://www.univrel.auburn.edu/tiger/video.html Ok so it is only a clip of their bird flying, but it is clearly from the NBC feed. It appears there are ways to get clips on the web after all.