Some viewers might be tempted to start searching for unlicensed streams – but chances are, many of those will be shut down minutes after they pop up. Luckily, there are plenty of legal ways to watch the Olympics, be it on your TV or on your iPad.

NBCOlympic.com’s one-time pass: Users who do have a pay TV subscription, but simply can’t find their credentials in time before the competition of their choice starts are getting a break from NBC in the form of a one-time pass. Selecting this option will give you access to a total of four hours of live streaming, after which you’ll have to authenticate. Just beware, this ain’t roll-over minutes: Your pass will expire at noon if you request it at 8 a.m., regardless of whether you keep watching or not. The one-time pass is available both on NBCOlympics.com as well as through NBC’s Olympics apps.

Want to learn more about watching sports, and other TV programming, without paying for cable? Then check out our e-book Cut the Cord: All You Need to Know to Drop Cable.

Free over-the-air TV: Want to watch the Olympics on TV, but don’t have cable? No worries, most the major competitions are going to be broadcasted by NBC, which can be watched for free, in HD, with a simple antenna. The broadcaster will show a total of 272.5 hours hours of footage from the games, with coverage beginning on weekdays at 10a.m. PT / ET, and on weekends at 5a.m. PT / ET. Check NBCOlympic.com for a more detailed schedule.

But wait, that’s not all: Spanish-language broadcaster will also offer 173 hours of coverage of the Olympic games, and can be received for free over the air as well. Check NBCOlympic.com for a more detailed schedule.

To learn how to access over-the-air programming with a simple rabbit-ear antenna, check out this video:

Don’t have a TV in your office or want to watch Olympics programming on the go? There are several ways to do this without relying on NBC’s authenticated streams as well:

Aereo: Viewers in New York can subscribe to Aereo to watch NBC on their iPad or PC. A subscription costs $12 a month after a free trial, but sign up is limited. For more on Aereo, check out our previous coverage.

Slingbox: You can also stream live broadcast TV to your office PC or mobile device with a Slingbox, but this solution isn’t exactly cheap: The Slingbox Pro HD, which is the only model currently on sale that works with an antenna, sells for around $240.

A TV tuner: Much cheaper than a Slingbox is to simply get a USB TV tuner for your PC. That way, you’ll be able to watch the Olympics on your laptop where ever you are, and some devices, like the Mac-only EyeTV, even make it possible to leave your computer at home and stream directly to your iPad or iPhone. Check out a demo of the EyeTV One tuner below:

While traditional television viewing is likely to rule the roost, I’m surprised by the very low estimates analysts are expecting for alternative viewing methods: Only nine and 16 percent in the U.S. and U.K. are expected to watch online coverage and mobile viewing will be even lower; seven and three percent respectively for the two countries. Maybe I’m in the minority, but I’ve already watched three early soccer matches on my computer and the games haven’t truly kicked off yet!

There’s simply too much coverage — and not enough space on our DVRs — to watch every aspect of the Olympics you might want to watch, which is part of the reason I think the analysts will be proven wrong in the next two weeks. We’re becoming a world of shifting everything about media: Where we watch, when we watch and on what screen we watch. I know I’m thankful that 3,500 hours will be available online — here’s how YouTube and NBC are making that happen.

Perhaps I’m spoiled by my home and mobile broadband, however, and the analysts are right. Given our broadband-centric audience, let’s see what you think. Let us know in our poll all the ways you plan to view the Olympic Games — you can select all that apply — so we can compare the numbers to some of the data analysts are suggesting, which is TV first, PC second and mobile being an afterthought.

Here’s the viewing expectations by device and screen per the Perform Group’s Global Sports Media Consumption Report 2012 to give our poll results a related baseline to compare to.

On digital revenue

paidContent was first to report NBCU’s $25 million in digital revenue for Beijing and that the network was more than doubling that revenue for 2012 to $55.5 million, based on $900 million in overall ad revenue. NBC announced Wednesday that it has passed the $1 billion mark in ad revenue and digital revenue rose with it. Lazarus told me six or seven percent of that is from digital. The new number is more than double that of Bejing, about $60 million, and if it winds up on the higher end, will be nearly triple. It’s small compared to the overall revenue number — but serious.

Lazarus calls it proof that advertisers not only want linear on broadcast and cable, but also online and mobile. The bulk of that is from desktop or laptop; mobile continues to be the least monetized, he added.

On streaming

In previous years, NBC has been both willing to experiment and uncomfortable giving full live access to the kind of events that would be in the prime-time spotlight. NBC offered 2,200 live hours from Beijing and only two events — curling and hockey for Vancouver, about 400 hours. The barrier to watching events that were being offered live in other countries drove Olympics fans crazy. For London 2012, NBC is going all in. I asked Lazarus if that was a decision he inherited or one he made.

“We made those decisions when I got into the role. They had a working plan that was not as ambitious as it sounded. We had a straw-man discussion about how people were consuming media and watching the games — and we made the decision to stream everything live.”

The reasoning? Lazarus explained: “There are a certain number of fans who want the immediacy of watching it live. Since most of it will have to be authenticated or verified, it brings value to our cable and satellite partners.” Plus, he believes “people will still gravitate to our primetime programs.” That’s not just a gut feeling. “All the research we’ve seen and all the trends in the industry show that putting things more out there leads to greater and wider interest.” He expects the live streams to lead to more buzz and energy for primetime, not detract from it.

“The Super Bowl is a good example. It was the biggest digital event with 2 million uniques and 750,000 on concurrently — and also the most watched television show of all time. Of those 2 million uniques, 1.6 million were watching television while having a digital experience.”

On authentication/verification

Why keep most programming on over-the-air NBC behind an authentication wall? The vast majority of NBC viewers watch via cable or satellite operators paying for rentransmission consent.

What about people who don’t pay for broadcast access? Of 114 million television households, Lazarus says roughly 100 million are cable or satellite subscribers. “Maybe 14 million don’t pay,” he added. “When you’re doing 5,500 hours live, if there’s five or 10 percent [of streaming programming] you don’t need to verify, that’s a whole lot of hours.” That would be 250 to 500 hours.

“We also have more Olympic coverage on free TV than ever before ever before –270 hours.” So cordcutters will have some streaming access without doing backflips and those who don’t pay for TV will be able to watch some of the Olympics on their sets.

The time delay made it even more important to Lazarus and company to provide the live streams.

NBCU is pushing all of its primetime Olympics viewing to NBC. The other channels set for multiplexing during the day — NBC Sports Network, CNBC, MSNBC, Bravo — will have their regular programming. “During the day we have a lot of options for people but there’s a lot of content. In prime time, the only place to watch the Olympics will be NBC.” (Well, the only legal place. I’ll bet digital dollars to your digital donuts that some people will spend a lot of time trying to watch through other means.)

Why not offer a digital subscription? “We think the verification process is that form of payment,” Lazarus said. “We don’t think they should pay twice.”

What would he tell peers making similar decisions about whether to go the authentication route?“We all have our own business models. We each have different events we do our own ways. As an industry, we have to push to simplify verification so our customers can consume all this. Let’s make verification easier for the consumer — as an industry.”

On social media

In recent days, NBC has announced partnerships with Twitter, Facebook, Storify and more. I asked if there is any incremental revenue in the Twitter or Facebook deals or is it all about marketing? Lazarus was quick to reply: “Marketing; it’s not a revenue play for us. We’re using them to market and promote the games, to personalize, make a connection. We have a unique opportunity to utilize some of the biggest talents in the world of sports, in some cases, entertainment and news … In a way it’s a personal plea — even though it’s one to many, you sort of feel it’s one to one.”

For Lazarus, it’s all a work in progress:

“This is a grand experiment. This is a billion dollar laboratory. We’re playing with a lot of things for the first time and on this scale.”

On success

How will Lazarus gauge success? “The overall measure for me for success is more than 200 million Americans watch some portion of the Games, which would make it a top five American all-time event.”

He also would like to surpass the Beijing digital assets by 50 percent and on mobile, would like to have a significant number of people use the smartphone and tablet apps.

“Some measure is making all of this technology work together. Looking at total uniques and page views and how many streams, we think we’ve got enough technology… if we’re pushing the limits, that will be a success.”

Was there anything you couldn’t do with digital? “We’re streaming more content, more simultaneious streams than ever before. We’re challenging the technical limits. It’s not about what we couldn’t do. it’s about focusing on delivering.”

The more than $50 million in digital sales represents at least 5.5 percent of the $900 million in advertising NBC Sports already has sold for London. The percentage is also up from Bejing, when digital represented 3 percent of the total take.

It’s not a vast amount but as one exec told me: “It’s real money.” That means it can no longer be dismissed as incidental or only marginally meaningful — a message that has not been lost at Comcast-operated NBC Universal.

By comparison, CBS (NYSE: CBS) brought in roughly $100 million in digital revenue for March Madness from 2007-2010, with sales increasing annually as the online event grew.

Why the uptick? Execs at NBC Sports attribute the increase to several factors, including the decision to put more than 3,000 hours of video from London online. NBC Sports is still a couple of months away from announcing what events will be live online but Mark Lazarus, who succeeded Dick Ebersol as head of NBC Sports Group, already has promised all events will be aired live online or on TV.

Under Ebersol and former NBCU CEO Jeff Zucker, NBC remained TV-centric, holding back video of some events even when the results — and often, the footage — were available. NBC Sports eventually started to provide coverage of results online but continued to hold back on some video to the frustration of online users (self included).

This version of NBC Sports will treat online video more like TV in other ways, including the ability to release more inventory during the Olympics if the demand is there.

[Keep in mind: Some users are still bound to be frustrated if they don't subscribe to multichannel TV. More video online and more live events on TV doesn't mean everyone will have access to everything. NBC Sports has yet to spell it out but some content will only be available to video subscribers via authentication. My hope is that Comcast will leave NBC itself outside of any authentication plans.]

As part of the increased streaming commitment, reported earlier this week by SBJ, NBC Sports is also shifting video technology and promotional partners to YouTube (NSDQ: GOOG) from Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT). Instead of Silverlight, NBC will use a co-branded version of YouTube’s video player. Instead of a syndication deal that allowed MSN.com also to show Olympic video, YouTube will promote the heck out of Olympic video from its front page and across the video hub but will direct all traffic to NBCOlympics.com.

Rick Cordella, VP/GM of NBC Sports and Olympics Digital, tells me reports that YouTube will be streaming official video as well are inaccurate. Some of that was fueled by a mistake on the NBC Sports advertising microsite that since has been corrected. It may sound like a small thing but it’s important to NBCU, which relies on its cable deals and affiliates, that YouTube not be perceived as a video partner. “All London Olympic video will live on nbcolympics.com,” Cordella said.

The switch is a lot more about demographics than technology. NBCU wants to increase the streams it serves and lower the age of the audience it reaches for the Olympics. YouTube already draws that kind of audience. With YouTube’s promotion hose turned on London, Cordella predicts “we will be able to move those demographics to the Olympics.”

According to its advertising kit (citing Nielsen), YouTube reaches 62 percent of U.S. males between 18-24 and 61 percent of all U.S. men between 18-34, as well as 58 percent of U.S. women 18-34. Users tend to be active, engaged and many of them like to share. Cordella is counting on all that to help NBCU expand its reach for the Olympics — which, in turn, will move that digital ad needle up.

While Cordella didn’t want to go into details, my understanding is the basic deal is a barter but NBCU would have to pay YouTube if certain metrics are surpassed. No revenue sharing is involved and NBC Sports retains control over ad sales.

NBC also has enhanced the technology it can offer advertisers during the Olympics by moving to ad insertion, which wasn’t available for Beijing. Instead of mirroring TV pods during streams, ads can be inserted to match the medium and device. That means that NBC Sports can serve up different ads from the same advertisers for a tablet user and a TV viewer at the same time, for instance.