Dear NBC,

I would like to watch the Olympics live on your site. I loved doing that during the Beijing Olympics.

Back then, all I had to do was download Microsoft Silverlight and select my local NBC station. It was wonderful. I got to watch fencing, which I LOVED and which I wouldn’t have been able to see if I’d had to rely just on television coverage.

But this year, you have moved to a different model. This model requires would-be Olympics viewers to select their TV service provider and input the email/password information from that service provider. This is easy enough for some people, but not all people have taken a TV package level that gives them one of these handy email/password combinations.

I have Comcast, but I do not have XFinity. I have the cheapest level of cable, which means I get my local NBC/ABC/CBS/Fox station, three PBS stations, MyTV, and a couple of other things. My internet is through AT&T.

So this means that, instead of watching your live feeds like I want to (because they have good, clear picture and sound) I’ll be looking for random UStream type streams. Which are hit-or-miss and generally not so good picture quality.

Now, if you make re-watchable versions of the live streams–I’m talking full, exact copies, not highlight vids–I will gladly watch those, since I don’t have to log in to jacksquat for those (at least I don’t think I have to). But I don’t know for sure that you will be doing those that way, and i only really care about seeing fencing and maybe archery. So. Like I said, those don’t show up on the TV much.