In 2012, for the first time in history, the Olympics were streamed online. This year, NBC will do the same for the Winter Games in Sochi.

But there’s a catch. As in 2012, to watch the full slate of on-demand events, or the live stream, you have to be either a cable or satellite-TV customer.  Buying only Internet access from your cable provider doesn’t count; NBC is again refusing to give Internet customers the option to purchase stand-alone Web access.

That’s right: To watch events online, over the Internet, you have to be a TV subscriber.

This is what happens when a company like Comcast-NBC Universal has a near-monopoly on the Olympic Games — and a vested interest in tying online content to cable-TV offerings.

As I noted in 2012:

NBC — and by extension, Comcast — is very comfortable operating in a monopoly environment. The Olympics are just the latest example of what’s gone wrong in our media landscape.

Instead of competing, the biggest cable companies are cozying up to each other in a united front against online video services. They’re doing everything they can to ensure they serve as the only gateway to online video content.

Our nation’s cable monopolists have a slew of weapons designed to turn consumers away from the Internet and into monthly cable subscriptions. Among their weapons of choice are discriminatory data caps, sweetheart deals with their former telephone rivals and efforts to put video content behind a walled garden.

Back in 2012, I predicted that unless the U.S. started taking the lack of competition in the cable market seriously, we would find ourselves in the same situation for the Sochi Games.

Unfortunately, I was right.

Original photo by Flickr user Mike Fleming