All Around The World: CBC, BBC Prep Their Olympic Coverage Plans

The CBC Adds Former Olympian Felicien To Its Beijing Coverage

ENGLISH BEAT: In Manchester, Jemima Kiss reports the BBC will "broadcast almost 3,000 hours of TV coverage -- and many more hours of video output via its red button interactive service and website," making the Beijing Games the net's "first truly digital Olympics." The Games are the BBC's "biggest yet," as the net has "dispatched 437 staff from London," as well as 56 local support staff. The BBC is "offering double the amount of TV coverage compared" to the '04 Athens Games. The BBC for the first time "will show [HD] Olympics coverage -- up to 300 hours -- on its BBC HD channel." Live video will also be available on the BBC's Web site, which will stream "six different channels ... to anyone watching in the U.K." (Manchester GUARDIAN, 8/8). The BBC's James Pearce reported that the net "has pulled its live outdoor reports because the presenters are struggling to remain presentable in the humid conditions." Pearce wrote on his blog, "For television reporters there is the 'sweat issue.' Maybe I just don't have the right deodorant, but I think the problem is far more fundamental than that" (London TELEGRAPH, 8/8).

WAYS TO WATCH: NEWTEEVEE.com's Janko Roettgers wrote under the header, "Pirate Olympics: 5 Alternative Ways To Watch The Olympics Online." China is the "motherland of P2P streaming, with almost a dozen vendors offering live TV transmissions." Live video sites are an option, as various streaming video hosts "will see a bunch of people trying to relay TV coverage of the games." YouTube is offering official Olympics coverage to 77 countries (the U.S. is not included), but that "won't stop users that access YouTube through a proxy server" in countried with access to the IOC channel. Torrent sites, such as BitTorrent, have "long been a good option for time-shifting TV." Also, foreign broadcasters, including the BBC, are streaming coverage, and it would not be surprising if "someone figures out a way to access a stream of some obscure Russian TV station" (NEWTEEVEE.com, 8/5).

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