There may be athletes from more than 200 countries participating in Beijing, but don't let that fool you. The Summer Olympic Games is the most hyper-local event ever staged. This year is no exception.

I've watched the 2008 Olympic Games in three countries now and I can tell you it's as if three completely different Olympics are being broadcasted from Beijing. The televised plot line in the United States (can the underdog US out-medal the mighty Chinese?) is vastly different from that of Britain (Team GB's stunning “gold rush”) and that of the Italian coverage (how could the Brits, Germans and French all be beating us so badly in the medals count?... Ah, never mind. Just show us more close-ups of swimmer babe Federica Pellegrini). Each national TV broadcaster has manufactured a convenient cast of villains, heroes and a plot unique to the viewing audience back home while ignoring all else.

A case in point is the Italian swimmer, Pellegrini. As a swimming fan, I would have liked to follow her more while I was in the US, but broadcaster NBC would have none of it. I wasn't alone. Instead, it was all Michael Phelps all the time, in and out of the pool. In between countless adverts for Budweiser and Visa, followed by some televised sport, American viewers were treated to eight repetitive victory interviews of Phelps while my Italian wife yelled at the TV set each time, "Basta Phelps! Show us Pellegrini!". In truth, if it weren't for Pellegrini's racy out-of-the-pool antics, which include stealing the boyfriend of rival French swimmer Laure Manaudou, allegations she might have a part in subsequently leaking naked photos of her jilted French foe, and then, on the eve of the Games, pulling the ultimate "psych job" by bragging about the great sex with Manaudo's ex, most Americans wouldn't know the gold-medal winner even exists. Pellegrini fans must be wondering: what does it take to get a little TV coverage in the world's largest media market? Evidently, she'd have had to race Phelps. Naked.

The Manaudo-Pellegrini saga is one of thousands of gripping Olympic stories that are worthy of in-depth media coverage, and by no means the most fascinating of them. If we had to rely on TV, we'd never know about half the things happening in Beijing these two weeks. Fortunately, the International Olympic Committee now understands the importance of saturating the Games with accredited reporters and photographers to tell the stories of interest to the billions back home in the most comprehensive manner possible. Naturally, this makes the internet the most indispensible medium to follow the Games. For example, I find the Olympic blog written by The Times' brilliant photographer Marc Aspland and others like it far more powerful than TV. I had no idea from watching the NBC coverage this weekend (which was delayed by half-a-day) that Jamaica's Ursain Bolt, now crowned the world's fastest man, won the men's 100 metres with his shoelaces untied!

To be sure, the rise of the net has had a transformative effect on the Olympic experience. In Sydney, organisers refused to grant accreditation to journalists from online news outlets, creating massive news blackouts of up to 15 hours in some parts of the world. This year, broadcasters are streaming live video of events online. And in the biggest triumph of all, the IOC has set up a YouTube channel, supplying archival video footage of events for 77 countries who cannot afford to broadcast their team in action. This is a huge breakthrough. For hundreds of millions of fans, the only time they get to see their home country athletes is when they parade into the Olympic stadium during the opening ceremonies. Once the Games begin, forget seeing the table tennis champion of Vanuatu in action or witnessing Togo's first ever Olympic medal (it was a bronze and it came last week in the men's single kayak event). Now, their feats will not go uncovered.

There is no way for TV to cover all 10,500 athletes, any network executive will tell you. And that's why I say it's time to hand over the controls to the net. The technology is certainly in place where the fans can choose what they want to watch and when. We don't have to have the BBC and Rai and NBC dictate the terms.

And yet, for the next two Olympics at least, TV networks will continue to dictate which events we see and when. That is because the American broadcaster NBC, which has paid billions for the rights to air the Games, has a contract that extends through the 2012 Games. Thanks to a deal struck before anyone had even heard the word "broadband," NBC calls the shots for what the rest of the world will view. (For example, NBC lobbied hard to get the swimming events staged first thing in the morning so it could air the Phelps gold medal chase in prime time.) It will be the same scenario in Vancouver in 2010 and London in 2012, unless the world's sports fans point out the absurdity of this broadcasting blackout. For Pellegrini fans, it's probably too late. But for fans of the Togo kayaking team, there's still a chance.

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Bernhard Warner, a freelance journalist and media consultant, writes about technology, the internet and media industries. He can be reached at techscribe@gmail.com

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