“Here’s how far live Olympic coverage has come: An app to let you watch every second of the London Games live,” Michael Hiestand reports for USA Today.
“The new NBC Olympics Live Extra app, that will offer the entire world feed live, will be available on iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and some Android handset and tablet devices,” Hiestand reports. “But there’s a caveat: To protect its cable/satellite/telco distributors, NBC will only allow access to the live world TV feed to viewers who get NBC’s MSNBC and CNBC channels — that’s about 100 million households out of the 114 million total U.S. TV households. (Users will go through a simple authentication process to show they get those cable channels.)”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: There are two distinct NBC Olympics apps, NBC Olympics and NBC Olympics Live Extra, both of which are free. Descriptions and App Store links follow:
NBC OLYMPICS. BE THERE, WHEREVER YOU ARE.
Experience the best of the 2012 London Olympic Summer Games with the NBC Olympics app. Get prepared for the Games now by checking out news, video, photos for every sport and all Team USA athletes. Plus, you can follow your favorite sports, teams and athletes, and engage with other fans on Facebook, Twitter and Google+ — all from your iPad, iPhone, iPod touch.
During the Olympics, you can follow every event from London, including real-time results & schedules, medal counts and TV & Online listings. And during the nightly Primetime Show televised on NBC, the app will feature a second screen experience that makes a great companion to the on-air broadcast!
Pre-Games Features:
* News: overall and by sport, plus NBC Olympic Talk blog
* Video on-demand: watch NBC Olympics highlights and featured videos
* Photo galleries: slideshows capture the action, emotion, and splendor unique to the Olympics
* Team USA: athlete profiles, news, video and photos
* Sports info: news, video and photos for all 32 sports
* Hometown Coverage: select your local NBC affiliate to get news, video and photos about athletes from your hometown
* Destination London: learn more about the host city with video, photos and news
* Twitter Tracker: see which Olympic athletes, sports and topics are being talked about on Twitter with interactive heat maps
* Social networking: share Olympic Games content with your friends via Facebook, Twitter and Google+Additional In-Games Features:
* Results & Schedules for all 32 sports: updated in real time
* Medal Counts: overall and by sport
* TV & Online Listings: look up NBC’s TV and online coverage schedule and set program reminders
* Primetime Companion: use your device as a second screen and enjoy and interact with contextual content to enhance your Primetime viewing experience
* Push notifications: get breaking news, programming reminders, and news and results for your favorite teams and athletesNBC Olympics video is only accessible in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories. The application requires a 3G, 4G or WiFi data connection. Watching video over a 3G or 4G connection may affect your wireless data plan.
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204 Nations. 302 Medal Events. 3,500 Live Hours. ONE SOURCE.
Get to ready to watch every moment of the 2012 London Olympic Summer Games LIVE for FREE with the NBC Olympics Live Extra app. In addition to watching all the live action, during the Olympics, enhance your viewing experience with alternate camera views, plus full replays on-the-go! You can follow your favorite events and sports, and receive push notifications for event start times. Download now on your iPad, iPhone or iPod touch to prepare for the start of the London Games, and take a look back at the best of the Beijing Olympics.
Pre-Games Features:
* Video on Demand: access short-form video clips to preview the London Olympics and relive the Beijing Olympics
* Online coverage schedule: find out NBC’s online listings schedule and set event remindersIn-Games Features:
* Live Events: watch every event of the London Olympics LIVE!
* Full Event Replays: relive all the great moments of the Summer Games with full event replays
* Channels: watch simulcasts of Olympic programming on NBC Universal television cable channels
* Gold Zone: check out the Gold Zone Live Streaming Channel featuring every gold medal event LIVE!
* Alternate Camera Views: view multiple camera angles for sports such as gymnastics and track & field
* Push Notifications: receive reminder alerts for upcoming events
* DVR: most live streams and all full event replays will have DVR capabilitiesAccess to some live streams and full event replays is determined by your cable, satellite or telco TV subscription. Further instructions are provided in the app settings section.
NBC Olympics video is only accessible in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories. The application requires a 3G, 4G or WiFi data connection. Watching video over a 3G or 4G connection may affect your wireless data plan.
The BBC has an app with 24 hour live streams of the Olympics for UK viewers too.
We’re so lucky to have something like the Beeb in the UK. You guys in the USA have no idea!!!!! NO ADS!
We’re so lucky to have dentists here in the US. You guys in the UK have no idea!!!
Yeah, that just about sums it up, you really have no idea.
Having visited the UK a number of times and working in healthcare in the US, I don’t think that’s accurate.
Out in Red State America the gap (pardon the pun) in dental care is quite profound. Between those who don’t brush & floss, heavy smokers and the crystal meth heads it’s pretty bad.
Sort of our version of their chavs, innit?
And while pAp likes to have someone at which he/she may safely sneer, there are more than enough of the aforementioned dental hygiene-challenged types in his/her cherished Blue State America.
@Nick: Maybe, but neither do we have to pay a mandatory annual TV license fee even if I never watch one second of the BBC.
Gonna download both of these the instant I get home. I’m a confirmed Olymp-a-holic. My wife is gonna be so glad for all the streaming options because it means I won’t be monopolizing the TV for every waking hour.
——RM
I will still monopolize the TV.
Your ONE month payment of a 1001 channels of crap amounts to more than a whole years worth of quality BBC programming for a whole year.
Note that the quality of which you speak includes both high- and sadly low-quality programming.
Get a TiVo. I record tons and tons of stuff I want to watch.
And yet NBC will plaster the Olympics crap all over every one of their networks.
12 years ago I worked for SF company Quokka.com, who was hired to create the first NBColympics.com site.
At that time, we thought streaming video capability was only a couple of years out.
Ten years after, It’s about time NBC.
I remember Quokka. America’s Cup, Indycar, very promising for the times.
There is an app called Premium TV that carries BBC stations and a ton of others. I use AirPlay to watch on my HD tv. I think it’s .99 or 1.99 but streaming is free. I watched a lot of Wimbledon coverage not available here in the states.
‘U.S. Premium TV-Radio’ app is UK only.
Ugh. Looks like it’s been pulled from the U.S. store.
finally!
now starts ModernTV! ; )
live!
in your (iPad) lap!
let’s hope:
– less or no ads
– resolution high enough
– stream without sluggishness
go figure.
BBC, a semi-government co. by the way, is more ahead/advanced than us, how embarrassing. they had live and AD-free tv apps before our Mummy Dearest NBC, who just announced its online divorce from history’s silliest marriage with MS…
so, why are we so behind in tech. South Africans even had cell phone banking before we had online (pc) banking. even 3rd world is ahead of us.
as for cellular tech: you can’t even call a guy 1 foot away in use without reception issues, but you can call a guy inside a mall in germany without any cell reception issues. go figure.
all that money in our nation. where is it all wasted?! our infrastructure is terrible…
The US is a little bit larger than SA or Germany. That could be part of the problem.
The reviews on iTunes are not good for these apps.