Part of the trouble with watching the Olympics every other year is how the broadcast rights are handed out. If you happen to dislike the broadcaster who has been granted broadcast rights for your country or territory, you are stuck with poor coverage of the event. Add to that the fact that no broadcaster, no matter how many television channels they have, can cover every medal event live. This is in addition to the long, frequent commercial breaks.
Luckily for viewers in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, the London 2012 Summer Olympic Games will be broadcast on YouTube. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced today that live streaming coverage of the games will be available on the IOC YouTube channel for fans in countries where the broadcast rights for the event have not been acquired. A list of the countries that will enjoy the access is listed below this story.
The IOC’s YouTube coverage will include 10 high-definition live streams covering the games, streaming from 9 am to 11 pm London time (currently GMT +1). In addition, a 24-hour broadcast of the Olympic News Channel will be provided to give result summaries, reports, and interviews. Fans who miss an event will be able to catch up with highlights and full events, which will also be posted to the channel. Those posted videos will be sortable by day, event, or sport.
“We are delighted to be able to offer live online coverage of London 2012 to sports fans free of charge across these 64 markets,” said Timo Lumme, managing director of IOC Television and Marketing. “We first provided clips on our channel on YouTube during the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games across the region, and since then have continued to provide footage of past Olympic Games across the world on our YouTube channel. Now we will also be able to offer live coverage during London 2012, complementing the excellent coverage provided by our broadcast partners across the world across all media platforms.”
Below are all of the countries included in the YouTube coverage. Countries not on the list will only be able to access past Olympic Games highlights and events from the IOC YouTube channel. Of course, clever internet users know that region-restrictions on web content are often easily circumvented, and some countries will have a convenient alternative.
Asia: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Brunei, Bhutan, Cambodia, East Timor, India, Indonesia, Iran, Laos, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mongolia, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam.
Africa: Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Democratic Republic of Congo, Republic of Congo, Côte d’Ivoire, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
