Saturday, July 28, 2012

Olympic Coverage on Roku BBC without Cable TV

I watched the Live Olympic Opening Ceremonies yesterday on my Roku on the BBC News channel, 3 hours before the NBC coverage. I am watching live BBC news coverage (NOT streaming coverage - NBC owns those rights) and competition wrap-ups now, Saturday morning, the first day of the games.
Those of us who have cut the cord with cable have been searching the forums for some hope that we could see even a little of the Olympics. The forum I found yesterday said those in the UK with Roku could get the BBC live coverage but fortunately I didn't read all of that, I just saw Roku, BBC, turned it on and had live Opening Ceremonies. 


***To install the BBC as a private channel, go to your Roku account on the internet. At the My Account page, look for Add a Private Channel under Manage Account. Type in BBCN for the code and click Add Channel. That will show you the BBC icon and confirm you want to add it. Then when you use your Roku again it will automatically look for updates. (I just discovered there is a BBC News app for my IPad so I am listening to Live BBC radio and it is continuous coverage. Yeah!)


I am perfectly content with the BBC coverage. It feels like getting to watch the local channel for an international event. They have live reporters everywhere, they are doing features on areas of London, local color and visitors. I just watched an interview with the parachuter who played the queen's stunt double during the opening ceremonies. It is slanted to Team GB but when I am not watching the BBC
I am watching British TV dramas like Midsomer Murders
                                                         or       Downton Abbey anyway so I am fond of Team GB. 
If you want NBC coverage you have to have a cable subscription. Some Roku or internet TV forum posters say they borrowed a license from their friends.  I can buy a converter for my  old TV and get free local TV with rabbit ears if I feel like I have to have live, full Olympics coverage.  


I didn't know when I killed cable last spring that I was part of a big movement of "cord cutters". If you google cut the cord, there are many articles about dumping cable in favor of internet tv and the alternatives. It has taken awhile to get used to my Roku but now I love it, I wish I had two so I didn't have to move it all the time but that's easy to fix.  I dumped cable because all I watched were Law & Order reruns. I occasionally miss local news coverage, but again I can get a converter to use with my old rabbit ears. During the Aurora shooting tragedy I watched San Diego and Denver TV coverage, channels my cable company doesn't have.  I like my Roku very much! 
Roku.com - Digital Video Players Connect to the Internet Wired or Wireless! Click here!
205627_Stream on your TV. Not your PC.

14 comments:

  1. Did you already have BBC installed on your Roku? That channel doesn't appear to exist anymore for us . . .

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  2. You can get it from Nowhere TV. Install Nowhere, go to International, BBC, then BBC News and it is live.

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  3. Anonymous12:05 PM

    BBC News is also available as a stand alone channel. You just have to add it as a private channel by adding the code BBCN

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    1. Anonymous3:23 PM

      How do I do that? I'm not finding a search function, or any way to type in a code or add a channel that isn't listed in my "Channel Store" Thanks.

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    2. On the Internet login to your Roku account. At my account, click Add private channel about halfway down the page. Type BBCN and click Add Channel. Once you select okay it will automatically update when you change use your Roku controller.

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  4. Thank you, I may have gotten it that way, I couldn't remember. I have had that channel almost as long as the Roku so couldn't remember where I got it.

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  5. Anonymous12:24 PM

    THANK YOU! This was helpful, installed BBC news and it's all Olympics!

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  6. You are welcome! I searched for it this morning again after being so excited that I got to watch the Opening Ceremonies live last night and all the posts said they didn't think the BBC would be live here at all. So belatedly I thought - oh - I have a blog. I should write about it! I also read that PS3 has a BBC Sports App that has live streaming of the events. I looked at my daughter's PS machines and unfortunately she says we have a broken PS2. Sigh. I am content with BBC news coverage so I am good.

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  7. Make sure you watch for the BBC interview with the Norwegian group who went to the pub and THEN had breakfast. LOL. NBC doesn't have THAT interview.

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  8. Anonymous12:55 PM

    The sad thing is, us cordcutters are often willing to pay (a SMALL amount) or watch commercials, but big media apparently don't want our money or our advertising eyes. They still believe that watching on "TV" is their core product and they are attempting to wring as much revenue out of that as they can. Internet is merely an afterthought for them.

    I'd pay a little bit to watch the olympics. maybe a $20 package for all-access on my Roku. (less than the cost of one month of basic cable). I'd pay a little bit to watch my home baseball team, all games, maybe $50 or so but the media companies want none of it. Because of broadcast rights agreements, the local channel affiliates get exclusive rights in a geographic area and the flat geography of the internet is unacknowledged by them.

    It is this type of anti-market thinking that killed the recording industry, the residential telephone industry, and others.

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  9. I COMPLETELY agree with you. I watch videos from CBS This Morning on No Where TV and NBC Nightly News stories on the NBC Channel. NBC has a commercial before every segment. I don't mind! I always want to tell someone that I don't mind! CBS could have that too but they are completely ignoring the potential for the Roku feed. I absolutely would pay a fee for the Olympic coverage. I am very worried about the Roku deal with Dish and what that will do to my channels and the independent producers.
    It will be interesting to see what happens to the local channels in the future. They are all in bankruptcy here (or have been and are struggling out). In big cities people don't want or need local news or at least not as much as they have. In rural areas where tornado and blizzard coverage is a must, local channels will have the strangle hold and I am not begruding them that. But my cable company just didn't offer enough to keep me so I watch international news instead of regional! I lived in California when Ma Bell went away. We all cheered. Now I think that was a big mistake because I won't have my home phone and I am controlled by my cell phone company (ask my daughter how much I hate my cell phone). Thanks for the insightful post and the discussion.

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  10. it worked!!! Thank you!!

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    1. You are so welcome! BBC coverage is just as good today. I love local TV News (especially in London!) and I am enjoying the Olympics. Win Win.

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  11. Thank you thank you! Score one for the little guys who just want to watch the olympics.

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