No Medals for USA for Internet Access to 2012 Olympics
I find the LIVE coverage of the 2012 Olympics pathetic. The Olympics have proven that such access to streaming Internet is not for everybody, especially those in the USA. In the US, streaming live events only comes if you pay for it via cable, satellite, or other subscriptions like MSNBC and CNBC. There is NO free Internet coverage for Americans. Yet, for 64 territories around the world receive FREE live streaming of the Olympics of every event! That is some 3500 hours on 10 real time channels. Compare to US streaming, which is 7.8%.
The only way around it for Americans is to use a proxy server to shield your real geographic address allowing you to access the channels. Pirate Bay is one such site.
Why is this the case for Americans? Well, it is because of Comcast. You see, Comcast is America's largest broadband company and happens to own NBC Universal, which has all US rights to the Olympics. Comcast does not want to allow Americans to receive live streaming free (is there any wonder why many hate Comcast). In England, the BBC allows for some free streaming of the live events.
America is an oddity. Other parts of the world offer extremely fast upload and download rates because most countries use fiber optics, yet in the USA, a mere 14% of the infrastructure for the Internet is fiber optic cables. Compared to others, like Japan, which has 63% fiber optics, or South Korea, like 58%, or Australia, 98%. What is wrong with this picture? Why?
Americans pay much more for Internet speeds that are actually slower when compared to other countries, which are often cheaper for the consumer. Makes NO sense.
Blame it on Comcast.