Hockey, curling, figure skating, bobsled–heck, even a thing called skeleton. The winter Olympics are almost here! Every four years we get to see athletes trying to fulfill their lifelong dream of attaining that elusive gold medal. One of my biggest pet peeves with both the summer and winter games, has been needing to record events at 1:00 a.m., watching them later and hoping the jerk at the water cooler doesn’t ruin it (or desperately trying to avoid ESPN so as to not see results). Worst case, you could even flat out miss events that weren’t televised. If you’re a biathlon nut like me–staying up until 3:30 a.m. to catch it live is a must. I would have been an unhappy camper in 2010 if I had seen Emil Hegle Svendson take the gold on the Internet instead of on live TV.
The good news for me, and you other Olympic nuts is that TDS TV will be offering access to live coverage of the Sochi games on any Internet-enabled device. If you subscribe to the Expanded or Expanded Plus tiers, you will be able to watch more than 1,500 hours of coverage, including every competition live or through video on demand. This means I’ll be able to catch biathlon on not just my TV, but through my computer, smart phone and tablet too. That’s very reassuring. All you have to do is click on the Olympics banner on TDS.net and enter your TDS User Name/E-mail Address and password for full access. All TDS customers still get 30 minutes of free coverage just by logging in.
If you decide Olympics on the go is more up your alley than watching it on your television, all you’ll need to do is download the NBC Sports app on your tablet or smartphone. As with other similar services, all content requires you to log in. Like with web streaming, even if you’re not a TDS TV customer, you can watch 30 minutes of live-action coverage.
Highlights and full event rewinds will also be available free on demand for Expanded and Expanded Plus tier customers. It’s really a revolutionary way to watch a sporting event that spans multiple weeks. If only I had access to something like this with the Super Bowl—I could have fast forwarded through the beating and watched the “lowlights” in 30 minutes instead of 4 hours. Hopefully the first in many revolutionary TDS TV offerings to come!
—Austin
