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How to watch Wimbledon online

Stream tennis matches live or on-demand

The Wimbledon tennis championships run from 25 June to 8 July 2012. With many of us at work during their  transmission, here's how you can sneak a bit of streaming action into your lunchbreak and catch the latest games online, live or on-demand. 

Provided you have a valid TV licence, you can tune into Wimbledon live or catch up on-demand through your PC, laptop, tablet, smartphone or games console. The coverage is free to watch, but it's worth checking your data allowance if you don't subscribe to a broadband package with unlimited downloads and want to avoid a hefty bill.

Unless you're in an area with strong 3G coverage, also check that a reliable Wi-Fi connection is available to enable smooth streaming of the Wimbledon tennis championships. See Broadband Advisor.

Watch Wimbledon online: Live 

TVCatchup.com lets you watch live free-to-air UK television on your computer, phone or games console. Versions of the site optimised for iPad and iPhone are available at ipad.tvcatchup.com and iphone.tvcatchup.com.

Head to TVCatchup.com and click the Sign Up button to begin. You'll need to enter a username, email address and password, then click Submit.

Once logged in, you're presented with a channel list. Wimbledon will be broadcast by the BBC; choose the correct channel for the particular tennis match you want to watch live online. You can also change the stream quality, which is useful if you don't have a particularly fast broadband connection.

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If this is the first time you've used TVCatchup, it will prompt you to update your profile with your gender, date of birth and occupation before you can begin watching live TV. On the following screen you will also need to select your region preference, then click Update Region.

TVCatchup kicks off with an ad or two, then immediately begins streaming your chosen TV channel. Sit back, relax, and enjoy the tennis. 

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Watch Wimbledon online: Catch up on-demand 

iPlayer is the BBC's free catch-up TV service. Programmes are available for seven days following their transmission, but note that the service's Download and Series Record features are not usually available for sporting events, such as Wimbledon. 

To watch Wimbledon on a Windows, Mac or Linux PC, simply head to bbc.co.uk/iplayer for the desktop version of the site. Dedicated apps are available from Google Play and the App Store for Android 2.2+ tablets and the iPad respectively, while Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii owners can stream content from Xbox Live, the PlayStation Network or through a Wii app.

If the tennis match you're after isn't featured in the top panel, choose BBC One or BBC Two in the TV Channels section to the bottom left. The following screen will show the programme listings for the past seven days; you can also view today's guide and listings for the next two days. Click the date on which the tennis match was broadcast in the timeline at the top of the screen.

Scroll down to find and select the match in the list. Click the arrow in the video frame to begin playback. Clicking again on the preview window reveals options to pause, fast-forward and rewind the action, turn on subtitles, and watch the match full-screen or in a pop-out window.

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Below the stream are links to more games; look to the bottom of the screen for a Lower Bandwidth setting if you're experiencing trouble with playback.

You may find that much of the Wimbledon coverage listed in iPlayer is marked 'Not available'. To view a full list of what content is available head to http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00cb3wq/episodes/player and use the 'Watch now' buttons to navigate to that content on iPlayer.

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