How to watch the Winter Olympics without cable, for about $30
February 9, 2018 by admin
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The Winter Olympics competition is about to begin, but if you have cut the cable cord and don’t have a strategy yet for watching, there’s still time.
First, you need to know that watching the Games is still geared toward subscribers of pay TV. Then, find a workaround.
Over the 18 days of the event in Pyeongchang, South Korea, NBCUniversal plans to live-stream or broadcast a record 2,400 hours across NBC and its other channels including NBC Sports, CNBC, USA and The Olympic Channel, the NBCOlympics.com site and the NBC Sports app. Action has already kicked off — curling and Alpine skiing started Wednesday — and the Opening Ceremony is Friday.
If your TV package includes NBC, you will be able to use your pay-TV credentials to watch everything on NBCOlympics.com or the NBC Sports app, too.
However, viewers without pay-TV credentials can only watch for free for 30 minutes the first day they visit the site or app. After that, you can watch for five minutes each subsequent day. A library of short-form, on-demand videos, usually less than five minutes long, will be watchable for free. (Note: This is different from the Super Bowl, during which NBC offered free online video access for all.)
If you are a big Winter Olympics fan, that won’t likely satisfy you. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to increase your viewing options.
More: The low-tech guide to watch the highest tech Olympics in history
More: USA TODAY’s Winter Olympics coverage
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For starters, an antenna can be used to capture NBC’s over-the-air broadcast signals. You could also check into media streaming platform Plex, which records those signals to your computer or storage device so you can watch later or when you are on a mobile device. The monthly Plex Pass is $4.99 and you connect your antenna to a digital tuner and run it through your computer (details here).
If you get broadband Internet service at home (either wired or on a mobile device), you could turn to one of the growing selection of Internet-delivered streaming TV services such as Sling TV and DirecTV Now.
Sling TV and DirecTV Now
These services let you select a personalized pay-TV package — without a monthly contract — that you can stream using an app on your TV using popular devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire, Apple TV, Google Chromecast and other Android devices such as NVIDIA Shield and some game systems.
Each of them has live feeds from the various NBC Universal channels and live, local NBC channels across much of the country. Each also has free trial periods of a week or so, which gives you a chance to watch the first week of action and see if you like the service (you could wait to tune in when the finals of your favorite events are scheduled). And most services let you log in to NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app to watch online action that is on channels you get through your streaming TV subscription.
The Olympics offers “a great opportunity” for these streaming TV services to attract new users, says John Tantum, co-founder of Suppose, a site that lets users compare TV services based on their needs. “There’s no commitment, so the entire Olympics can be available for just $35-45 and a user can cancel the service at the end of the month,” he said. “But many people will like the service and realize that they can happily live without their cable or satellite TV service, which is probably costing them two to three times as much.”
The absence of a contract is important to nearly all (94%) subscribers of these broadband TV services, according to a recent survey of 1,000 active subscribers done by The Diffusion Group.
Internet streaming services may make it harder, at some point, for consumers to get the service for a month and then cancel. But for this season at least, the contract-free offers continue. Here’s a quick breakdown of the medal-winning broadband TV services:
►DirecTV Now. The ATT-owned service has local NBC channels in 46 markets and includes CNBC, NBC Sports and USA channels in its lowest-priced package ($35 per month; free seven-day trial), which has an ongoing introductory offer of the first three months for $10 each (use code YESNOW3). Another deal gives you a free Amazon Fire TV device if you pre-pay for two months of DirecTV Now.
For any service, consumers “really need to check every market” to see if they get a local NBC channel, Tantum said. In Tampa, none of the streaming TV services has the local NBC station, he says, while in Las Vegas, only YouTube TV has the local broadcast affiliate. That local broadcast would be important if you want to, say, which the hockey games live.
►FuboTV. Originally a soccer-focused streaming service, fuboTV (free seven-day trial, first month at $19.99; $39.99 monthly) now has more than 60 channels including local NBC stations covering 70% of U.S. households and the other four channels carrying Olympics action. FuboTV plans to have an expanding library of highlights from the Games, too. FuboTV also has a cloud DVR to record 30 hours of programming; pay $9.99 more per month for 500 hours of DVR space.
►Hulu. Hulu’s Live TV service ($39.99 monthly, free seven-day trial), which has live NBC channels for more than 75% of U.S. TV households, has a customized interface to let you pick your favorite sports. That will keep you updated on upcoming live coverage and the availability of on-demand coverage you may have missed.
►PlayStation Vue. Sony’s TV offering has a multiview feature — you can watch three channels at the same time — something that could come in handy during the Games. The service (starts at $39.99 monthly, free five-day trial), has live NBC feeds in 38 markets and includes CNBC, NBC Sports and USA in its entry-level programming package. You can add The Olympics Channel by upgrading to the $44.99 monthly Core programming package ($44.99 monthly). Other perks: a cloud DVR and ability to stream on five devices simultaneously including three outside the home. Only subscribers with a live NBC feed can use their PS Vue credentials to log on and watch live on the NBC app.
►Sling TV.The first service to deliver live local TV via broadband — Dish Network launched it three years ago — Sling TV has local NBC feeds in 11 markets including Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, New York and the San Francisco area. (Check Sling’s website to see if it offers NBC in your area). The Sling Blue package ($25 monthly, free seven-day trial) includes NBC, if available, NBC Sports and USA. To add CNBC, get the News Extra package for an additional $5 monthly Add a 50-hour cloud DVR for $5 monthly.
►YouTube TV. Among its 40-plus channels, this nearly year-old service ($35 monthly, free seven-day trial) has NBC live channels in 66 markets, covering 70% of the U.S. Also on board are CNBC, NBC Sports, USA and The Olympic Channel. Among YouTube TV’s perks: unlimited cloud DVR recordings for nine months, six separate accounts and three simultaneous streams.
Each of the streaming services will use different approaches to present the Olympics “in their own flavor,” says Peter Chave principle architect at Akamai Technologies, which provides cloud services and global delivery of streaming video including the Olympics Games.
NBCUniversal, which has the rights to all the Olympics Games through 2032 and has sold more than $900 million in advertising for the Pyeongchang Games, wins whether you watch on a traditional pay-TV provider or on a streaming service, he says. ”If you are not on a cable network, they want to try to capture you as a viewer with a similar personalized, rich experience and that gives them reach outside of their usual footprint,” Chave said.
If all this makes you wonder, “Wouldn’t it just be easier to have a pay-TV subscription?”, here’s what else cable is offering. NBCUniversal’s parent company Comcast has an elaborate offering for its X1 subscribers with 50 virtual channels, daily updates and some programming in 4K Ultra HD high-dynamic range video with Dolby Atmos sound. DirecTV and Dish Network will also provide a channel of 4K and 4K HDR programming, too (DirecTV in Dolby Atmos, as well).
Follow USA TODAY reporter Mike Snider on Twitter: @MikeSnider.
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A White Supremacist May Be The Only Republican Running For A Seat in Congress
February 9, 2018 by admin
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Updated at 1:15 p.m. ET
Illinois congressional candidate and avowed white supremacist Arthur Jones is unlikely to have any competition on the Republican ballot in November. The state GOP has denounced him and his candidacy but says it had no way to keep him off.
Arthur Jones
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Arthur Jones
Arthur Jones is a racist, denies the Holocaust happened, and will very likely be the only Republican on the ballot for a Chicago-area congressional seat in November.
The state GOP has denounced Jones and his candidacy but says it had no way to stop him.
“We’ve tried to do everything we possibly could to prevent this person from getting on the ballot,” Illinois GOP Chairman Tim Schneider said.
The Lyons, Ill., insurance agent is a former leader of the American Nazi Party. He features pictures of himself addressing a recent Aryan Nations World Congress on his campaign website and says that “race mixing [is] against the laws of nature and God.”
Jones is not new to the scene in the predominantly Democratic district that includes parts of Chicago and its south suburbs.
He has tried to run for Congress there at least five times previously, stretching back to 1998.
Under Schneider’s leadership in 2016, the party challenged signatures on Jones’ petitions and successfully got him booted from the ballot. Not so this year, as the petitions passed muster.
That has left some voters in the 3rd Congressional District frustrated with local party leadership.
“It’s discouraging that someone with such strong beliefs that I disagree with could make it this far,” Republican voter Dacia Smith of Western Springs said.
The December filing deadline for next month’s primary passed with no other candidate stepping up to go against Jones. Schneider says it’s difficult for the Illinois GOP to recruit viable candidates to run in heavily Democratic areas.
“There aren’t very many people who want to go through the time and the effort to become the sacrificial lamb in these districts,” he said.
That’s a sentiment echoed by the former head of the Illinois Republican Party, Pat Brady.
“There is limited resources,” he said. “You can’t put all of your money in every district, so we have to focus on the districts where you can win, and probably the bigger problem is these districts all over the country are gerrymandered.”
Rep. Dan Lipinski, the incumbent, is in his seventh term and is one of the most conservative Democrats in Congress. He faces a primary challenge by Marie Newman, who is more liberal.
Up until Jones came on the scene, that was the only story coming out of this race.
Smith says that even in Democratic strongholds, getting a viable Republican name on the ballot is an investment worth making — not just when it prevents a self-proclaimed Nazi from stealing the party’s nod.
“I think sometimes as the underdog party, we’re a little too relaxed in believing that it’s a fight not worth standing up to,” she said. “Sometimes we roll over before we try, but I think we should put emphasis in every district.”
So for her first time voting for Congress in her new district, Smith says she will cast her vote for the Democrat.
Brady says he hopes other Republicans will do the same.
“We need to inform people that this is not a guy who shares our values, not a guy anybody should vote for, and you should get out in that district and vote for a Democrat,” he said.
Current Illinois GOP leadership says it is exploring other options to prevent Jones from winning, including encouraging voters to write in a candidate they have yet to find.