Purley

This morning, my friend and I got on the Internet hoping to watch the boat race. However, like lots of things, it was only streaming for the UK. It said we did not have a licence to watch it.

Now, if you live the UK you can watch it on TV. I assume they know from our IP addresses, that we are not in the UK. I just wondered why they do this because we have no other way of watching. I mean, it's not like we are not going to the venue and they are losing money. We cannot watch any other way than by streaming video - can we?

Does anybody know of any way you can watch UK sporting events live on the Internet?

I assume they could let us watch. It's just that they don't want to.

Does anyone know why not?

Biiiiink

You could try using a UK proxy server - I've done that for BBC content in the past. The connection isn't always wonderful though, you take your chances

I can't imagine the rest of the world being interested in the boat race but usually it's because they've sold the exclusive rights for whatever event to someone in your country, and the people they've sold it to will stipulate that it not be available to you in any other way than through them. Annoying when it's not available in your country, but that's why UK transmissions are blocked to us.

Here's a list of stations who showed the race - http://www.theboatrace.org/article/w.../mediacoverage - apparently this is the first year it's been shown in the US, do we get US ESPN or is ours Canadian? I don't know...

It might be uploaded on UK Nova later too, it's been requested but not fulfilled as yet.

Purley

What is a UK proxy server?

How do you get stuff from UK Nova? Do you need to download something first?

Atlantic Xpat

I believe it's largely to do with a) the chance to make money and b) if you make 'live' tv available over the internet globally then you probably contravene broadcasting rules in x different countries. For example (and I know that Auntie Beeb wouldn't do this) you might show something that would be considered offensive or illegal in Canada & thus might get into legal difficulties here.

I suspect as the internet and delivery of video content grows b) will ultimately fall by the wayside but I'm not so sure about a)!

One method I have used to watch stuff from the UK is to have a friend in the UK record it to their computer (assuming they have the technology to do this) and then use a program called 'Pando' to send it to me. Pando is a file transfer utility.

Otherwise you are stuck with finding it on a bit-torrent site like UK Nova. (Which I can never get in to as it seems like a bit of a closed club!).

AX

Purley

I used to get sound files on box.net

http://www.box.net/info

I wonder if that could transfer files. However, I'd first have to get someone to record it and I'd never manager to talk my sister into getting around to it. Oh well, never mind, I got to watch the replay on the ITV website.