London Olympics: NBC won’t livestream opening ceremony

The 2012 Olympic Games opening ceremony begins at 9 p.m. in London. But if you're not a Brit, you'll probably watch it at 7:30 p.m.–no matter what city you're in. That's because NBC isn't airing the opening ceremony live. Instead, NBC is using an old-fashioned tape delay, so that everyone tunes in during prime-time. Oh, and don't even think about streaming the ceremony live.

While NBC is promising livestreams of all 32 sports and 302 medals, it won't livestream the opening ceremony. “It was never our intent to livestream the Opening Ceremony or Closing Ceremony," Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics, told the Wall Street Journal.

More from GlobalPost: When the BRICs crumble

"Whoa whoa whoa, wait a second – NBC is broadcasting the opening ceremony on TAPE DELAY? It's 2012!," Tweeted one viewer. 

And Matt Wells, a blogs editor for the Guardian's New York office, Tweeted: "NBC showing complete contempt for its audience by not showing or streaming Olympics opening ceremony live."

NBC does promise to livestream the actual athletic events. "If you love to watch the Olympics, this is your year," begins an NPR article. But in reality, it is only "your year" if you have cable; the livestream is only available to people who can sign in with their cable provider's usernames and passwords. "Hello FREE? I don't have cable. or any other TV source except the internet. Thus there is NOTHING FREE about this 'service,'" commented an angry NPR reader. 

Meanwhile, some crafty readers were giving each other advice about how to bypass these limitations. One legal idea: bake cookies for a neighbor with cable, then demand to find out their account information.