# Could someome "leak" the superbowl to the internet? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 3, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115 "2008-02-03T19:02:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![solkoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/919ad9/32.png) [@solkoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solkoe)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/1 "2008-02-03T19:02:17Z")
Not having TV and wondering how I’m going to watch the game, it occurred to me that the technology must be there for someone to digitally record the game and stream it almost as fast as it is recorded so that essentially, a TV-less guy could enjoy the game via the internet. Is this possible? ---
**Author:** ![Santo\_Rugger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e95f7d/32.png) [@Santo\_Rugger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Santo_Rugger)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/2 "2008-02-03T19:11:21Z")
Of course. I’m taking distance education classes, and there’s a pretty high quality camcorder in the studio that films the professor and streams it live to the class participants. The delay is pretty short, and with some practice, it’s not hard to hold a conversation and ask questions with a mike during class. It’s recorded for later viewing, but it doesn’t have to be. We also watch clips that were put into the PowerPoint slides, so I can’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be possible to do it without the camera once the video card turns it into a format the computer can understand. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/3 "2008-02-03T19:32:00Z")
Easily. We use something called CyTV to wirelessly stream TV to our laptop computer around the house. Works like a charm. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/4 "2008-02-03T19:33:20Z")
The NFL would certainly prosecute anybody who does this for copyright and trademark infringement, which might make it somewhat less tempting. ---
**Author:** ![Garfield226](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Garfield226](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Garfield226)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/5 "2008-02-03T19:33:33Z")
I believe this is essentially what the [Slingbox](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slingbox) does, though it’s only supposed to let one user at a time access it. No idea if it’s been hacked to open it up to many people at once, but it wouldn’t surprise me. ---
**Author:** ![ultrafilter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/3d9bf3/32.png) [@ultrafilter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ultrafilter)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/6 "2008-02-03T19:35:09Z")
There aren’t any technological limitations outside of bandwidth and the time needed to encode the broadcast, but the NFL is extremely strict about who gets to rebroadcast its games. You might run into some trouble there. ---
**Author:** ![Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/48db29/32.png) [@Key\_Lime\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Key_Lime_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 3, 2008, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/7 "2008-02-03T19:35:22Z")
Google “sopcast superbowl” ---
**Author:** ![neutron\_star](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/51bf81/32.png) [@neutron\_star](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/neutron_star)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/8 "2008-02-04T01:07:51Z")
I’ll be damned. That works. I just checked it out because I was curious, since I do have cable, but that’s pretty cool. ---
**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/9 "2008-02-04T01:33:36Z")
There are several Chinese-based sites and programs that rebroadcast various shows over the Internet. Lots of people have used them to try to get around the DirecTV NFL monopoly. You can also find lots of other non-American programming. A lot of soccer and cricket, for instance. ---
**Author:** ![JpnDude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/838e76/32.png) [@JpnDude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JpnDude)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/10 "2008-02-04T02:13:10Z")
There are many who are watching the game live (well, delayed about 30 seconds or so) online via peer-to-peer software. Read **Key Lime Guy’s** post above. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/11 "2008-02-04T02:15:52Z")
[justin.tv](http://justin.tv) is running it. ---
**Author:** ![SmackFu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/53a042/32.png) [@SmackFu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmackFu)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/12 "2008-02-04T03:39:15Z")
[QUOTE=asterion] There are several Chinese-based sites and programs that rebroadcast various shows over the Internet. [/QUOTE] Yeah, generally they run some random foreign channels, and one of those happens to have the foreign broadcast rights to the Super Bowl. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/13 "2008-02-04T03:49:58Z")
[QUOTE=solkoe] Not having TV and wondering how I’m going to watch the game, it occurred to me that the technology must be there for someone to digitally record the game and stream it almost as fast as it is recorded so that essentially, a TV-less guy could enjoy the game via the internet. Is this possible? [/QUOTE] Oh yeah, completely possible and has been for years. The tricky part is not getting in trouble with law enforcement and the civil legal system. I operated a rig that was capable of doing this back in 1999, so the tech is nothing new. We had a machine that sat in the radio station and dumped the audio feed into a RealMedia stream [1]. I used it to broadcast the campus radio station across the Internet. All legal, as the radio station asked my department to do it for them, and in fact provided most of the needed hardware. [1] Man, I hated that company, who will be first up against the wall when the revolution comes. ---
**Author:** ![Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troy_mcclure_sf/32/4150_2.png) [@Troy\_McClure\_SF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Troy_McClure_SF)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/14 "2008-02-04T17:27:30Z")
There’s always the basic point-the-webcam-at-the-TV solution, which at least one Doper did on 9/11 for those whose TV was knocked out. ---
**Author:** ![Kid\_A\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed8c4c/32.png) [@Kid\_A\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kid_A_1)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2008, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/could-someome-leak-the-superbowl-to-the-internet/436115/15 "2008-02-04T17:37:13Z")
I won’t link to the site but there is a website that streams NBA games. I was able to watch the Raptors/Lakers game on Friday on my computer since the game was broadcast on a channel that I don’t get. I’ve also watched hockey games via a similiar method.