Local BBC radio not available online outside UK during Tokyo Olympics
bbc.co.uk
bbc.co.uk
I have a feeling this is probably going to have one of the lowest viewing figures ever for the games
I've tried searching for a couple of days and couldn't find anything, just found some 5minute long summaries.
I've stopped caring, I'm always curious to see at least some event but this year they seem to have way too much friction in place for something that I'm really not that interested in.
I’m not in the uk, but I’m in Spain, and it was mentioned that the sellout was europe-wide.
This is a far cry from London 2012, or Rio 2016, where they had 15 dedicated olympics channels and is a crying shame, as the coverage was usually top notch.
I have Sky TV in the UK and so have Discovery+ free for a year, and the coverage is extensive - but mostly without any commentating.
Lots of the events aired on Eurosport are just feeds; no commentary it analysis.
I think it's a huge error, viewership will decrease and the sports that usually get a boost from TV coverage will struggle.
Like the IOC cared about sports in the slightest. The only thing they care about is cash. Like FIFA in football, these big international organisations have been fundamentally corrupted a long time ago.
Originaly called BBC Empire Service it is targeted toward a global audience. I like that the news are much less US/EU focused than the usual media I consume.
I sometimes find out that their top stories are events that our news don't report much on, because they happen - say - in Gabon.
You can still hear the World Service on 198 kHz longwave after 0100 BST in much of Europe, they even shut down Radio 4 with the national anthem just before like it's the '50s or something. It's a delightful anachronism.
Nice work IOC
I don’t know what the “rights reasons” are, but a total blackout seems extreme.
I can almost see this happening with the Olympics to some degree, if it continues to be shown only on channels you pay for, people are going to lose interest in watching it more and more over the years. I like watching the Olympics but to be honest not enough to pay an extra £7-10 a month to see it where the coverage isn't nearly as good as the BBC can do.
I was surprised to find family friends who lived in Philadelphia watched BBC World Service as their primary news source when I visited them.
We have the technology to stream every single event in its entirety yet somehow NBC always manages to never cover anything well.
Is this an example of a tit for tat, proxy war?
Has the BBC decided to do this in retaliation though?
A licence is required to watch any channel while it is being broadcast. It doesn't have to be "live" (or perhaps that is the same as "while it is being broadcast"). You also need a licence to record it while it is being broadcast. You need a licence to use iPlayer.
For these purposes, "broadcast" includes satellite, even if you only watch foreign channels.
The BBC and its funding have been a political football since forever. The right hate the BBC because it's funded by taxes, and seen as socialist; the left hate the BBC because it tends to lick the as* of the government of the day - the style of news coverage changes in the first few weeks after a general election.
The licence fee is a regressive tax; the beeb should be funded out of general taxation.
I'd like to see a BBC that is independent of the government, ad-free, and cut loose from the need to chase viewing numbers. I don't know how to get from here to there. If the beeb were a subscription service, I'd consider subscribing.
The TV licence is one of those anachronisms that should have gone away long ago. There's a wild mismatch between who pays and who benefits even if you accept the principle. And as you said funding through general taxation would be less regressive anyway.
I don't see a big problem with setting that up. It requires an Act of Parliament that establishes an arms-length public body to run the BBC, which it more-or-less already has in practice anyway, and a budget, which can then only be changed through a further Act of Parliament. That's as "independent of the government" as you can ever get under our legal system, but at least any attempt to change it later would require active steps by the government at the time that would immediately attract attention and could be resisted in both Houses of Parliament if they were inappropriate.
I renewed it literally this morning with a credit card and it clocked £ 159. But the radio is free.
Nothing stops you from firing up iplayer or BBC sounds over a VPN or something (unless something has changed outside the UK)
I’ve realised that I wrote “free television and radio network” in my parent, I can’t edit anymore.
I dream of a world where the world's governments recognize the IOC for the mobsters they are and it is put out of business.
Sports is cool, the Olympics is not.