Watching Wimbledon on my television - thanks to Google

I've been watching a ltitle Wimbledon coverage this week, courtesy Google.

Via YouTube.com/Wimbledon, Google is offering a mix of video streams from low rez right up to high defintion (or HD; as I type there is a 720p option; earlier this week there was 1080p as well).

If you choose the high definition option, the action looks great full screen.

And with Apple's AirPlay mirroring, I can watch it on my regular television with a click.*

YouTube's Wimbledon page is vague on which games are covered live amid its various magazine-style items.

A Google spokeswoman confirms it's some games, some of the time.

She told NBR as the tournament kicked off.

"There will be about four to six hours per day of live content on the ground at Wimbledon which includes behind the scenes, interviews, and press conferences.

"The livestream will be dipping into certain matches and other real-time content.

"About 20 minutes of each hour of livestream will be gameplay."

With such a wooly, incomplete timetable, YouTube is not about to peel away many tennis lovers from traditional broadcasters.

And although it's pretty easy - and getting easier all the time - wi-fi streaming is still offputting for the average bear. Sometimes my ADSL connection was just too slow for streaming, leading to a little stutter, a couple of times my wi-fi connection dropped out - as temperamental wi-fi just sometimes does (Apple TV and similar products can also be connected by ethernet cable to your broadband modem).

Still, as a proof-of-concept, this is another intriguing experiment, along with the recently launched PremierLeaguePass.com and Slingshot's new Global Mode that lets you access geo-blocked TV, movie and music services in the US and elsewhere.

Imagine if a couple of years down the track, with the UFB fibre in most homes, Google bid for global rights to Wimbledon. Google has already outbid Sky for Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket rights.

We live in interesting times.

* Yes, it does fail the cocktail test; I can't explain it in one sentence to someone at a party. But for the record, in the second photo, the red arrow points to the Apple AirPlay icon on my MacBook. As long as you've got a $159 Apple TV wi-fi widget attached to your TV - circled in red in the first photo - the process is simple. You can also pull this AirPlay trick with an iPad - then once the action's playing on your TV, dim the iPad and put it to the side. You can perform similar tricks from the Windows or Android side of things).