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ISU VPN Blocking

all the videos are showing blocked for me :(

Same here- multiple VPN sites tried; all blocked. Dang. So frustrating.


NBC must have a tighter contract in America than WBD has in Europe, and 9 Network has in Australia.

(I always thought 7 Network had the Olympics rights in Australia. And that avoiding having an extra break every couple of years on top of the normal Christmas break was the reason why Channel 5 and RTÉ didn't catch up with "Home And Away" over here, even though they both could have easily caught up years ago, like they both did with Network 10's "Neighbours". Or is it just the Summer Olympics that 7 has?)

You know, it is really dispicable the way that NBC treats their viewers. Not showing competitions in full on the TV. And only keeping their internet coverage up for a day or two, giving viewers who are not able to watch LIVE little opportunity to watch on demand. And then continuing to block the World Feed coverage even after that window of opportunity has passed.

I do not know how people in America stand for this sort of behaviour. The contempt that this company is showing for it's customers is beyond belief.

I am so glad that the broadcasters over here on this side of the Atlantic are more considerate. Apart from news bulletins which are only up for 24 hours, the very minimum for stuff to be available on demand is 7 days. But most broadcasters now make things available for either 30 days or a year.

I have noticed people being nostalgic about ABC's coverage of the Olympics in an off-topic discussion over in another thread. Disney only have a handful of channels over here (National Geographic, Nat Geo Wild, Baby TV, the recently re-launched Disney Junior, and their soon-to-be-relaunched movie channel). So we don't get the full picture of what Disney are like compared to NBCUniversal (for that matter, we don't get a full picture of what NBCUniversal is like either. All we know is what we read on this forum). But are they any better at making programmes on their "normal" channels available on demand?

In other words, if the Olympics went back to ABC, are things liable to be available on demand for longer than they are currently on NBC?

But, this is all academic, because NBC have the Olympics rights for another 10 years.

CaroLiza_fan
 
ABC in the day had Dick Button and Jim McKay (who loved skating). Neither is alive now. Their importance in the success of the whole Olympic show and skating programs in the US at that time cannot be underemphasized.

The role of Dick Button was not just as a talking head. He was not just a truly great, history making skater, and a Harvard Law graduate.


He knew how to put a popular show together. He even got an Emmy.
As founder of Candid Productions, he created a variety of made-for-television sports events, including the World Professional Figure Skating Championships, Challenge of Champions, and Dorothy Hamill specials for HBO.[17] As an actor, Button performed in such films as The Young Doctors and The Bad News Bears Go to Japan starring Tony Curtis. He appeared in television roles, including Hans Brinker and Mr. Broadway, as well as appearing in a 1995 episode of Animaniacs, voicing himself in the three-part segment "All the Words in the English Language".

Figure skating historian James R. Hines said that it was in roles other than as a skater in which Button has had the greatest influence on the sport. As Hines states, "Perhaps no name is better known in figure skating, a result of his visibility for more than 40 years as a commentator. ...Through that forum, he had the opportunity to champion the sport more than any other person".[9] Hines also says that Button's commentating career gave him a 40-year long historical perspective.[9] Button provided commentary for CBS's broadcast of the 1960 Winter Olympics, launching a decades-long career in television broadcast journalism. He did commentary for CBS's broadcast of the 1961 United States Figure Skating Championships. Beginning in 1962, he worked as a figure skating analyst for ABC Sports, which had acquired the rights to the United States Figure Skating Championships as well as the 1962 World Figure Skating Championships. During ABC's coverage of figure skating events in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s, Button became the sport's best-known analyst, well known for his frank and often caustic appraisal of skaters' performances. He won an Emmy Award in 1981 for Outstanding Sports Personality – Analyst.[17] Although other U.S. television networks aired the Winter Olympics from the 1990s onward, Button still appeared on ABC's broadcasts of the U.S. and World Figure Skating Championships until ABC quit televising them in 2008.

According to writer and figure skating historian Ellyn Kestnbaum, for viewers who had never viewed the sport live before seeing it on television, Button "in effect educated [an] entire generation in how to watch skating".[18]

There is a reason Uncle Dick is in the sports broadcasting Hall of Fame. There are many good personal anecdotes here:

He also developed and sold the long running Superstars program, one of the very first reality competition shows.

 
all the videos are showing blocked for me :(
Same here- multiple VPN sites tried; all blocked. Dang. So frustrating.

I just found out that the full livestream replays and top 10 individual performances are all up in the Olympics website as well:

For example, here is the full world feed replay of the Women's free skating in the Olympics website.

Just for testing I turned on my VPN and set it to the US, and IT WORKS!!! :jump3:

Members in the US, could you please confirm whether it works for you without any VPN? If so, I'll update the rewatch threads with these links from the Olympics website 😊
 
You shouldn't need to register on YouTube to watch videos, I can always do it without an account. But in case for some reason it's asking you to register an account, you already have a YouTube account if you have gmail - you just need to activate it.

If the VPN is asking for registration, then yes, most good VPNs ask for registration. It is worth doing so only if you use VPNs regularly, though.
 
Thank you! After a few seconds, there is a popup requiring creation of a free account. That was worth it to be able to see the gala. NBC and USA placed long commercials during many of the pieces that didn't have a connection to Americans. The free account is associated with the Olympics itself. I am not using a VPN and am in the U.S. The piece by Piper Gilles & Paul Poirier reminded me of one by Sergey Ryupin & Elena Khvorova at the 2005 World Superstars Dance Festival, which is an invitational show held in Japan every year with the best ballroom and Latin dancers. Here's a link - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOiByplrkX4&list=RDNOiByplrkX4&start_radio=1
 
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I have to register to watch or it's a no.

When watching in the Olympics website, I do get the popup saying "Sign up for free to keep watching" from time to time, but I found that I can just close the popup and quickly go to fullscreen with the video, and then I can continue watching.

I also tried creating an account with my USA VPN on and selecting USA as my place of residence, and it allowed me to sign up and watch seamlessly afterwards. The registration is not that painful IMO, they only ask for your email and nothing else.

Hope you can get it working for you!
 
When watching in the Olympics website, I do get the popup saying "Sign up for free to keep watching" from time to time, but I found that I can just close the popup and quickly go to fullscreen with the video, and then I can continue watching.

That made it work. (But you do have to go to full screen pretty fast or the little bugger hits you again. :biggrin:) I already have much of what I need recorded on DVR since it comes with my cable TV package, but I like being able to hear Belinda Noonan's perspective on Olympics.com and she was doing the commentary on Alysa's FS.

Having said that, it's quite obvious that different providers are showing different camera angles and include/exclude moments/shots from the program, including what happens after the skater is done. That can alter the experience of who is watching and, frankly, now I see why so many disagreements can happen on the forum after someone skates. Everyone is not being shown the same thing from the same angles. I was surprised how much Eurosport, for example, was shooting the camera from the back of Alysa and at too far a distance compared to NBC in the USA.
 
That made it work. (But you do have to go to full screen pretty fast or the little bugger hits you again. :biggrin:) I already have much of what I need recorded on DVR since it comes with my cable TV package, but I like being able to hear Belinda Noonan's perspective on Olympics.com and she was doing the commentary on Alysa's FS.

Having said that, it's quite obvious that different providers are showing different camera angles and include/exclude moments/shots from the program, including what happens after the skater is done. That can alter the experience of who is watching and, frankly, now I see why so many disagreements can happen on the forum after someone skates. Everyone is not being shown the same thing from the same angles. I was surprised how much Eurosport, for example, was shooting the camera from the back of Alysa and at too far a distance compared to NBC in the USA.
Filming from a distance allows viewers to appreciate better the speed and ice covering of a skaters, but of course one loses in details.
 
Actually, the Olympic livestreams archived in the Olympics Channel have been un-geoblocked in the last day or so.
I can confirm that I can watch it without any VPN, and it was definitely blocked in Australia before. Hopefully that means it will work for everyone 🤞

Here are the Women's short and free programs for example:




Unfortunately these ALL are “video not available” for me - anyone else?
 
Unfortunately these ALL are “video not available” for me - anyone else?

Yes, we found out the Olympics Youtube videos are non-geoblocked for everyone except for the US. Please see this post for another way to watch that isn't blocked in the US:


For smooth viewing I recommend making an account on the Olympics website - it only asks for your email and country of residence, nothing else. Otherwise you can try closing the sign up popup and quickly go to fullscreen with the video to bypass it 🙂
 
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