YouTube To Broadcast Olympics In Over 70 Countries

The International Olympic Committee announced Monday that YouTube would be offering online coverage of the Beijing Olympics in 77 territories across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, only in areas without an exclusive digital online provider. The channel, which can be found at www.youtube.com/beijing2008 is not available in countries with existing online deals, such as the U.S. where all broadcast rights are owned by NBC.

Here is some of the IOC's press release:

From 6 August 2008, the IOC will broadcast a selection of Beijing 2008 Olympic Games clips as Video On Demand (VOD). The IOC's Channel will be available on YouTubeTM, geo-blocked within each territory, at: www.youtube.com/beijing2008

The IOC's Channel will be accessible in territories where digital VOD rights have not been sold or have been acquired on a non-exclusive basis.

Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), a wholly owned subsidiary of the IOC, will produce regularly updated Olympic content. The package will include highlights, news and daily clips of the competitions, available throughout the 17-day period of the Games.

After online broadcast coverage was made available in a handful of territories for Athens 2004, and in 23 territories for Turin, Beijing 2008 marks the first time that digital media coverage will be freely available across the world provided by the rights-holding broadcasters and/or directly via the IOC's Channel.

And here are the places in which Olympic content will be offered via YouTube:

Afghanistan	Madagascar
Angola	Malawi
Bahrain	Malaysia
Bangladesh	Maldives
Benin	Mali
Bhutan	Mauritania
Botswana	Mauritius
Brunei	Mongolia
Burkina Faso	Mozambique
Burundi	Myanmar
Cambodia	Namibia
Cameroon	Nepal
Cape Verde	Niger
Central African Republic	Nigeria
Chad	Oman
Comoros	Pakistan
Congo	Papua New Guinea
The Democratic Republic Of The Congo	Qatar
Ivory Coast	Republic of Korea
Djibouti	Rwanda
East Timor	Saudi Arabia
Equatorial Guinea	Senegal
Ethiopia	Seychelles
Gabon	Sierra Leone
Gambia	Singapore
Ghana	Somalia
Guinea	Sri Lanka
Guinea-Bissau	Sudan
India	Swaziland
Indonesia	Syrian Arab Republic
Iran Islamic Republic Of	United Republic Of Tanzania
Iraq	Thailand
Kenya	Togo
Democratic People's Republic Of Korea	Uganda
Kuwait	United Arab Emirates
People's Democratic Republic Lao	Vietnam
Lesotho	Yemen
Liberia	Zambia
	Zimbabwe

Read the full IOC press release here.

Read more HuffPost Olympics coverage here.

Comments

[politisophical]

as an American i have to go through a proxy server from Djibouti to view the Olympics while Rowanda is getting it through youtube ....

let me get this straight, SUDAN has complete network neutrality while America doesn't....... outrageous

[loki]

just here here at Huffpo, censorship is alive and well in the US. And its driven by US corporations.

[POLINUT]

Fellow Americans/People wake up.

America, like North Korea, is one of the very few countries in the world where there is no foreign media widely available to the masses. Less than 1% of Americans (more like .3%) even bother to travel beyond North America. That is why Americans are clueless when it comes to truly understanding the many varied nuances other societies in our global village.

Want to stream BBC, the most widely watched non-US source of news and information in the world? Forget it. Want to watch it on cable (no, not the watered down hacked up bs American version). Forget it. How about the next most widely watched news - Aljazeera? Only if you pay for it at www.jumptv.com. They want it to be free to the USA just like it is free outside of the USA, but the powers that be said "No".

Be happy with your fishbowl of only US media choices. Big Brother said it is good for you and all you need to know - so it must be true.

[Agnim]

Anyone notice the odious effect of private business monopoly of media in the USA?

Is private business monopoly of US media any better than government monopoly, which interfering American imperialists are always ranting about in other people's countries?

If Americans cannot end media monopoly in US (regardless of who monopolizes the media) do Americans recognize that they have zero moral authority to be attacking other nations?

[FantaPants]

It's says a lot about the current state of the U.S that a viable debate has broken out about whether it's better to live in Syria or America.

[kevinwiz]

It says they broadcast to Iran. Problem is, Iran blocks youtube.

[stepintothelight]

Why isn't China on this list???

[jamalystic]

Good move by the IOC and Youtube! People in those countries should themselves be able to share the spirit of the games even though this was meant to thwart pirated rebroadcasts from youtube which has now become the haven for massive copyright infringements: Top 10 Ways YouTube Has Ruined Life for Good(http://www.internetevolution.com/document.asp?doc_id=155235&F_src=flftwo)

[fussygorilla]

I live in Turkey now and Youtube has been banned for some time now. Any other venue to watch the complete coverage? American networks are not worth the time.

[daddydamon]

The NBC coverage will be a joke, as usual. 90% feel good stories about American athletes and 10% taped coverage of events that favor Americans. So gross. I'll be watching live on the internet.

[MagisterLudi]

I've lived in many countries, and American Olympic coverage is THE worst ever. I especially despite the requisite ten minute bits about some swimmer bravely overcoming his grandma's fight with rheumatism.
Most of it , replete with slow-mo, muzak and Vaseline-hazy lenses is made in best traditions of Playboy TV.

[THEMILITANT]

Syria, repressive? I live in Syria and feel much safer than if i was in the USA. The people are much friendlier also.

[MarcInCA]

Try being gay in Syria. I'll take the George Bush's USA any day over a country where I can be beaten to a pulp and hanged simply because of who I am.

[MagisterLudi]

baathsims= national socialism. There's almost no difference. I do not like to throw around the word fascism like yesterday's paper. But these two movements are identical. What started as kind of pan-Arabism detiriorated into a virulent, severly opressive and expansionist state.
Hussein: Kuwait and Iran invasion,
Syria attacks on Israel, present Lebanon occupation and attacks on Jordan.
Note that Syria does not allow Youtube-- too "liberal."
The wall shall remain, the Syrian dentist governance notwithstanding.

[Americatortures]

Ask the few living survivors in the Syrian city of HAMA...where Al-Hassad had the citizens of that city murdered because they were opposed to new taxes imposed by the government­....20,000 Syrians slaughtered by their own government!!!

[MagisterLudi]

There are NO repressive people. But there are plenty of repressive governments. Learn the difference. And in repressive countries like Syria, Iran Saudi Arabia and Husseine' Iraq people usually find it easier to go with the rules than fight the government. Thus repressive governments go on.

[Heterodoxy]

Do they have to sit through commercials on Pharmaceuticals, cars no one will buy or fast food? I didn't think so. Still I will gladly watch from the USA instead of having to be in some of those backwater repressive countries

Nigeria
Syrian Arab Republic
Somalia
East Timor
Chad

Tip of the hat to my brother Michael Reynolds covering the Beijing Olympics for European Pressphoto Agency (EPA). Family is proud of you.