I don’t subscribe to any pay TV service. I couldn’t get cable TV even if I wanted to, and I cancelled my DirecTV subscription months ago as there was simply nothing on that was worth over $70 per month. But here we are with the Olympics in full swing, and we’d like to watch some events that aren’t broadcast on our local NBC affilliate, which should not be a problem as NBC is thoughtfully streaming video over the internet for our enjoyment.
So I go to the NBC Olympic website and attempt to watch some streaming video, but get asked to select my ZIP code and TV provider. ZIP code is easy, but the long list of providers (which has the statement stating “I verify that I am a subscriber to this service”) does not include broadcast / over-the-air TV. I tried the first one on the list, but got back a message stating that service is not available in my ZIP code. So instead, I select DirecTV, select the nearest town and then get the opportunity to select my local NBC affiliate. I have no idea why I just couldn’t select it directly, but that’s something that only NBC can answer.
I open the first stream, only to find it between events, so I close the window and select another screen, to be greeted with this…
In case you don’t want to click the image, it says (in bright red letters) “You have exceeded the number of attempts allowed to access live Olympic video or long-form replays online. Your computer will be locked from accessing this type of video for 24 hours.” No soup Olympics for you!
Well screw you too, NBC.
After calming down for a moment, the rational part of my brain kicked in and reasoned that there are two ways to block my computer – block the IP address or use some kind of cookie to deny access. If they were to block the IP address, it would also block just about everyone else using my satellite internet provider (their entire network appears to use NAT) so it must be a cookie. Sure enough, Firefox lists two cookie sets – one from NBC.com, the other NBCOlympics.com. I deleted both sets of cookies and lo! I can get to the streaming video again.
Now this only took me a couple of minutes, but I would like to think that I am more computer savvy than the average bear, so I have to wonder how would the typical user/viewer cope with such an incident? I guess they would simply close out the website and wait the allotted 24 hour “no subscription TV punishment” to expire.
But do you know what really bites? I go through this to get to the streaming video and I still find nothing worth watching.
Oy.
August 11, 2008 at 10:12 pm
I have to agree with you there. I have to admit that have I got the message that I wasn’t allowed to watch streaming video because I didn’t have the correct cable provider I was pretty miffed. What I wonder is what do they get out of denying people from watching video that’s supposedly free? Why should I get penalized because I don’t subscribe to a particular cable service? After I got that message I lied and said I had DirectTV or something Luckily I live in a major city so it’s entirely plausible that my area would have that provider.
I do have to admit there still wasn’t anything that I wanted to watch. Of course China is 12+ hours ahead of the US so it is entirely possible that the events that I wanted to watch had already happened.
August 17, 2008 at 12:04 am
I hate them (NBC) with a passion. It’s bad enough that they don’t broadcast enough interesting stuff, but I can’t even get to anything interesting on their stupid site that isn’t at least 24 hours old. I just want to watch the highlights of a few races I missed and already know the results of. After 20 clicks, I still can’t seem to find them. This includes the marquee event of the Olympics – the men’s 100m final, which is now about 16 hours old. Sheesh. Worthless crap.
August 18, 2008 at 7:08 pm
I totally agree. The layout is horrendous and everything is hard to find. How awesome could this have been? Maybe next time they’ll get it right
August 19, 2008 at 8:34 am
NBC pretty much spoil the name of America with its screwup, and since Olympics is a world wide event. I am pretty sure lots of people would be extremely pissed off with this marketing gimmick and not visit the country which this company is based in.