From time to time (almost like clockwork on Saturday mornings) this board will get spammed by a shyster offering links to various live events taking place that weekend. I never click on them because, you know, SPAM, but for the sake of argument: Is there a legitimate way to watch an event that is likely not available to you on TV? Like if I wanted to see [insert European soccer team here] vs. [insert another European soccer team here]; or the inauguration of [insert Asian prime minister here]; or something.
By “legitimate” do you mean “legal” or “a way that actually works”? There are websites that carry links to live streams of most sporting events (and other stuff too); they often originate in Europe. In the US it is illegal to stream a network’s programming (e.g. ESPN) without their permission.
It is possible to find live soccer games (and other stuff too) from around the world on these sites. I don’t know how legal it is- I assume the European networks don’t like people streaming their programming any more than the US networks do.
I’ve seen some of the spam posts you refer to before they get deleted. When I mouse over the links they usually are not the more popular streaming sites I’ve heard about.
You can find news channels that live stream events like a presidential speech, but when networks pay millions of dollars for the rights to broadcast sporting events, they’re not likely to provide access for free.
There are numerous subscription based packages that allow you access to live content that’s not on local TV, such as the MLB package for baseball games.
Some networks, like ESPN, also let you access their live stream on various devices if you have an existing cable subscription, but that’s different than what you are asking about.