"Click one of the videos and you’ll be told that you need a copy of Microsoft’s Silverlight browser plug-in—something that’s available in Mac-compatible beta-form from Microsoft. You can get that plug-in by clicking the Click To Install the Free Plugin link."

That's exactly where I stop.

What? The Lenovo Olympics? Requires Windows?

I can't imagine …

Question to NBC: Why not simply format your video content in Flash to make it easy for EVERYONE to watch the games?

Flash plug-ins are a universal standard and work with every browser and platform I know of. Why purposely put an impediment to viewing your content, unless it's to purposely thumb your collective NBC noses at Apple for being "inflexible" on iTunes pricing?

Any company, especially a mega-media company like NBC should be ashamed at not having the foresight to include the MILLIONS of Mac users around the world, especially with the Mac selling so well to many more millions of former Windows users around the world. Or was this done on purpose?

I think it was done on purpose, but not for the reason you suggest. It's really easy to capture Flash video, Silverlight, not so much. My guess is that NBC is interested in protecting this content so that it can't be easily shared. They're already promoting "highlights" discs that you can purchase. Giving the content away via Flash could cut into that revenue stream.

nbcolympics.com says "intel only"

Does the silverlight for PowerPC allow you to watch the videos?

Why bother watching the Olympics on NBC anyway? Their coverage is pitiful, as is par for the course with NBC.

Besides, who really wants to watch streaming video of Bob Costas?

Let's not forget that this is the first grand scale Silverlight experiment. Don't think for a second it has not been carefully planned behind the scenes due to the how much is riding on it. I am pretty sure the Silverlight enabled video is not hosted on normal internet servers, but is directed through regional farms to area ISPs. Not like Akamai but something different. Now this may make the Olympics look great in since the video is flowing well, but it can also skew the opinion of how Silverlight might work in real world use. Maybe Redmond will be honoring us poor heathens with some spectacular whitepaper on how well they pulled it off after the Olympics is over.

Competitive software is great (Flash vs Silverlight); but Silverlight has way too much extra baggage for me to feel comfortable with it at this point.