London Opening Ceremony Live Streaming Video Online: With No Official Stream, Alternates Surface

With No Official Live Stream For Opening Ceremony, Alternates Surface

While CTV is airing the London 2012 Olympics Opening Ceremony live across Canada, and BBC will have live coverage in the United Kingdom, NBC in the United States has chosen to waive live coverage in favor of tape-delayed primetime coverage.

But what if you want to watch live online?

NBC will not have an official live stream online, per the Wall Street Journal, and their coverage won't begin until 7:30 p.m. ET -- more than three hours after the Opening Ceremony actually kicks off.

Some are not happy that NBC will not have live coverage of the event, which begins at 4 p.m. ET. Among media members to speak out on Twitter was The Guardian's Matt Wells, who tweeted, "NBC showing complete contempt for audience by not showing/streaming Olympics opening ceremony live." He added, "what type of broadcaster pretends something isn't happening?"

Some are already finding creative ways to get around the lack of an official stream:

  • This link appears to show BBC live coverage. Though it's filled with ads, a working live stream appears when you click Stream 5, @samerfarha found.

  • Another live stream that appears to be working is offered by the site VIP TV, making the rounds after a tweet from @VIP__TV.
  • An alternative method going around Twitter is to download http://tunnelbear.com, set it to UK, then go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/tv/bbc_one_london/watchlive, shared by @darrenwaters among others. However, @producermatthew points out you only get 500 MB of data for free on Tunnel Bear, good for just minutes of the Opening Ceremony.
  • Adweek recently wrote about the challenges facing the IOC and NBC when it comes to illegal streams. Bill Wheaton, of Akamai (an NBC partner), told Adweek NBC will be aggressive shutting down illegal live streams: “They have a pretty aggressive approach and response time. Usually leaks are found within minutes and shut down.”

    (Keep checking back for updates should any official live streams surface.)

    There are other ways to follow along. Check out curated Twitter chatter in real-time on the #Olympics page. You can also run an Olympics search on Twitter.

    The Guardian has a live blog, as does the BBC, Reuters and HuffPost Sports..

    Check out some epic moments at previous Opening Ceremonies below.

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