I watch weightlifting pretty closely, and most of the globe's networks seem to stream the BBC feed. It's one of the better broadcasts out there -- really knowledgeable commentators, completely neutral, just there for the joy of the sport and competition.

All of the globe's networks are actually using one stream from the Olympic Broadcasting Services http://www.obs.tv/

I found the making of videos they have on that page interesting. Basically the OBS are the ones doing the actual filming and broadcasting of all the Olympic events , and then all the broadcasters of the world rebroadcast that. They also provide all the onscreen graphics.

So NBC could send down a tech crew and an uplink truck and we would still get full coverage of the Olympics minus all the color commentary.

Oh awesome, thanks for the info. I'm watching a CBC stream and it's CBC branded -- but I know NBC and BBC show the same footage, and at least BBC the same commentators.

My first thought seeing this article was "Since when? NBC streamed gymnastic coverage in place of showing weightlifting".

The BBC feed for weightlifting has been excellent (and it's a sport that needs it, with more 'meta' strategy than many things), while NBC's coverage has been US-obsessed and tepid-to-awful for pretty much every competition.

The BBC feed is great. When the Olympics are current I rent a linode in the UK so I can stream it. There's probably another way, but it only costs a few bucks.

Please don't assume it is much better outside the US. If you watch the winter games while visiting Japan you would think that the entire Olympics was just a few minor events that served as bookends for the ski jumping competition. In the UK I get good options from the BBC but event then for major sports the coverage focuses on the athletes that the audience cares about, which is basically team GB plus any major names in the sport or expected winners. It is better for the lesser-known sports where you just about everyone is unknown; at least I did get to see all of the rowing and fencing qualifications and medal rounds (no joke, my daughters are into both events and so we spent a lot of time watching.)

If it really bothers you I think that a decent proxy and the BBC iPlayer can get you good all-around event coverage...or so people have told me...