IOC AND RTE out do China
RTÉ Radio Olympics 2008 Coverage
Due to International Olympic Council Internet broadcasting rights restrictions RTÉ is prohibited from making Olympic content accessible outside the island of Ireland (the territory).
These rights restrictions prohibit RTÉ from making any audio content broadcast live from, or recorded in, an accredited Olympic venue available outside the territory.
Because of the nature of RTÉ Radio’s comprehensive Beijing 2008 Olympic Games coverage the only manner in which RTÉ can comply with these rights restrictions is to regretfully make all our live Radio streams and the majority of our archived programmes available only within Ireland for the duration of the Olympic Games.
We do realise that this is of annoyance and inconvenience to our users abroad for which we sincerely apologise.
A limited number of programmes will be made available post-broadcast worldwide, in an edited format, during the Olympic Games. Please check the programme website to see if this is the case.
Did you try and appeal?
Yes. The EBU made a number of appeals to the IOC, but was rejected.
Why not just block the Olympics themselves?
Because the restriction is not just limited to highlights of the Games, but it expands to any footage filmed within the 'accredited' area or interviews conducted within the 'accredited' area. For instance, if Pat Kenny was to interview an Irish person via a mobile phone and they happened to be in an official Olympic car, we cannot play that interview outside of Ireland.
Realistically, this means we need to block all live streams, radio and television, because we cannot monitor all of the streams 24 hours.
Question is will anybody else be monitoring this and objecting to Pat Kenny interviewing an Irish athlete live?
How about a program on censorious capitalist copyright restrictions RTE?
p Heres a good article on it from US reporter with an Irish husband who noticed the problem
NBC exclusive deal means no live ceremony on US TV
Another blog describing NBC lame coverage
