Last year (see my 2008 post), both live and downloadable versions of most Wimbledon matches were available to all over the Internet through the Wimbledon Live service for a flat fee of $24.99.
Unfortunately, Wimbledon’s 2009 licensing regime makes it so that honest viewers from many countries, including Canada and the U.S. (see complete list below) can no longer access the service for any fee.
Amercian’s can watch online through NBCSports or ESPN360.com. Unfortunately NBCSports must be using the same proxy-shield blocking technology as hulu because Hotspot Shield users can’t access the site outside of the U.S.
Below, I include links to several bootleg services offering 2009 Wimbledon matches live streamed. Some are fantastic. Some less so. When I clicked around I could usually find the match I wanted to watch in English.
Of course, these only work when Wimbledon matches are underway. To schedule your viewing, the play schedule is here.
Channelsurfing.net
As far as I know there is no legal way for me to watch streamed Wimbledon matches in Canada. Fortunately there is at least one bootleg service available where Canadians, and anyone else, can view live matches – Channelsurfing.net.
Once on Channelsurfing.net scroll down to the Wimbledon logos and click on one of the several available streams – available in different languages. As I’m watching now (June 24, 2009 at 3:00 pm Eastern) there are 7 available live streams. I am watching the ESPN stream on both my iMac and PC and both are working fine. [Update: The ESPN stream cut out midway through a Roddick match and hasn’t returned as 11:30.am Eastern June 25]
MyP2P
MyP2P is another place to find dozens of online streams. You may have to click around awhile to find one that works and/or is showing the match you want in the language of your choice. Some links require a plug-in to be downloaded. I don’t trust them so I only accessed those that played through without a plugin.
ATDHE.net
I had very mixed results with ATDHE.NET. It looks easier than MyP2P because it lists actual matches underway. Unfortunately I could only get a few of the listed streams to work from Canada. [Update: Hum… now all the streams are working. For awhile I just got a red X in a big box. Maybe it takes awhile for it to start?]
Justin.tv:
If you click here, there is a constant stream of major matches. Though there is a scoring system onscreen that makes no sense at all to me.
If you know of any other place where Wimbledon matches can be viewed online in Canada, the U.S. or any of the other blacklisted countries below, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post.
Countries No Longer Eligible for Wimbledon Live Service
Live streams are NOT available in the following Countries:
- United States
- Canada
- Germany
- Japan
- Hong Kong
- Spain
- Mongolia
- Bangladesh
- Nepal
- Bhutan
- New Caledonia
- North Korea
- Pakistan
- Papua New Guinea
- South Korea
- East Timor
- Singapore
- Sri Lanka
- India
- Taiwan
- Laos
- Maldives
Once again, content creators and broadcasters have screwed honest users who are willing to pay for their content!
See also: 2009 Wimbledon Live Streaming Sources
Thanks for the various sites… Wasn't aware of Channelsurfing.net and some of the the other live streams out there…
Glad to help. I wasn't either until I needed them this year 🙂
One day we'll be able to legally subscribe to the content we want. Until then …
I don't know I was using http://freetubetv.net it has super tennis (only works if you're in UK or East coast CA). But also tennis tv which had the game rolling all the time.
Is http://www.watchlivetennis.net worth subscribing to? How does it compare to channelsurfing?