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Between the Lines

Larry Dignan, Andrew Nusca and Rachel King

Time Warner's Olympic boost, courtesy NBC

By | August 7, 2008, 9:16am PDT

If you’re Jeff Bewkes, the chief executive of Time Warner, you might get pleasantly surprised over the next couple weeks at the number of your Time Warner Cable subscribers who use their Internet connections to access streams of video of the 25 sports being sent live via www.nbcolympics.com.

Don’t be. They could be Cablevision Systems cable subscribers.

If you try to log in to the live video streams on NBC’s Olympics site, you will be rejected if you identify yourself as being a Cablevision customer. According to NBC, Cablevision hasn’t come to agreement to provide the full range of enhanced services it is offering for the Games.

Don’t worry, though. If you instead identify yourself as a digital customer of Time Warner Cable in Manhattan, you’ll get in and the system will identify you as the same customer the next time you come back, without any questions asked.

The ethics are up to you to decide. Or NBC, which hadn’t put in any means to authenticate users’ stated subscribership, as of 7 a.m. this morning.

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Tom Steinert-Threlkeld is editor-in-chief of Securities Industry News, as well as a long-time media, technology and business journalist.

Disclosure

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld has interests in two Web startups, which he cannot disclose until formally launched. They do not involve enterprise computing. He holds interests in technology companies only through mutual funds in which he has no say in their selection of investments. He has worked for Reed Elsevier PLC, Ziff Davis Media and the A.H. Belo Corporation.

Biography

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld

Tom Steinert-Threlkeld is editor-in-chief of Securities Industry News, as well as a long-time media, technology and business journalist.

He experimented with online news delivery a quarter century ago, with a text-only online service called StarText at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in Texas.
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RE: Time Warner's Olympic boost, courtesy NBC
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
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The Olympics are Greek
BALTHOR 7th Aug 2008
I wonder if the Greeks agreed to having the Olympics in other countries?
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The Olympics are Greek
funfox 8th Aug 2008
Yes, we have. Its like open source. happy The true spirit of OG is to unite all countries. The only problem is dopping.
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What about over the air users?
Larry Huisingh 11th Aug 2008
I noticed that when I go to the NBCOlympics site that after you enter your zip code you don't have an option for something like "over the air". What are we supposed to do, select the local cable company even though we don't actually use their service? The wording says something to the effect that I certify that I am a paid subscriber to the above service. What if I'm not a paid subscriber to any service?
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RE: Time Warner's Olympic boost, courtesy NBC
tomlin21-24319035676893835085146735905770 11th Oct
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