NBC Takes Wimbledon Online for Free

First, NBC did a great job providing complete online coverage of the final round of the US Open on Monday and now comes word that NBC will be streaming their coverage of Wimbledon for free:

On Monday, it said that next month’s women’s and men’s finals at Wimbledon will be streamed live on NBCSports.com. The network brought “Sunday Night Football” to the Web last year, a ground-breaker for the NFL.

In addition to the two finals, NBC said all of its Wimbledon coverage, starting this weekend, will be available on its site, as well as a separate locale under the aegis of the tournament. The network said online viewers will see different camera angles than what’s on TV for the semifinals and finals.     LINK

As I mentioned in my US Open post, I think these sorts of decisions are a clear sign that the networks are not going to sit back and let cable companies dictate how their content can be consumed.  Realizing that they are losing out to piracy entirely due to their failure to provide a valid alternative, NBC is doing the right thing bringing Wimbledon online for free.

We will have to see what their actual coverage looks like, though it sounds that with the exception of the finals, the stream will be the same as the one being broadcast on TV.  We will also have to see what happens with commercial breaks.  During monday’s golf coverage, the online stream did not include the televised ads but instead put up a placard saying, in effect, “be right back.”

It is not clear what sort of advertising will be embedded with the online coverage.  It would be interesting to know if NBC is sharing any of it’s ad revenue generated online with their cable carriers.

Wimbledon is an especially exciting offer for online viewing since, for US viewers, much of the best coverage occurs during normal business hours when access to TV can be impossible.

NBC Streams US Open Online – Cable Co’s Should Be Scared

Please don’t tell my boss, but I currently have NBC’s live stream of the final round of the USGA Open playing in a corner of my monitor.  Not only is the picture clear and steady but I have quick access to every stat I could imagine.

This should scare the bejesus  out of the cable companies like Time Warner and Comcast.  If NBC can stream live coverage of a major sporting event right to my desktop (which could easily be plugged into my TV) I find myself asking, once again, what the hell do we all need a cable company for these days?

The cable company, much like the major record labels, are quickly becoming unnecessary middlemen who will fight tooth and nail to hold onto their increasingly untenable position due to the wealth created by standing between a provider and a viewer.