How to Watch the Winter Olympics, on TV and Mobile Devices

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The opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Games happens Friday in Pyeongchang, South Korea, but some of the competition actually starts sooner: Early rounds of curling and alpine skiing begin airing late Wednesday night; prime-time figure-skating coverage starts as soon as Thursday. For two and a half weeks, the networks and streaming platforms of NBCUniversal, which owns exclusive broadcast rights, will air so much skating, skiing and hockey you’ll need multiple screens and DVRs to keep up with it all — more than 2,400 hours, in all.

So where can you catch every second of luge? What if you’re away from your TV and need your live biathlon fix? And what if you’ve cancelled your cable package?

Luckily, your options are plentiful. Here’s a guide for how to watch, on a variety of devices and platforms:

I have cable (or an HD antenna). What’s on and where?

With the rebranding of Universal HD as the Olympic Channel last year, NBC acquired a second home on the cable dial dedicated exclusively to sports. But only one — NBCSN — will be shouldering the bulk of the network’s broadcasting load over the course of the games. USA and CNBC will fill in some gaps, adding a few hours of coverage of specific events, at roughly the same time each day. And while NBC has tried in the past not to compete with itself — limiting its prime-time coverage to its primary broadcast network — this year it will offer additional choices for viewers all day and night, including prime time. (For a full network schedule, go to the NBC Sports website.)

NBC

Every two years, devoted Olympics-watchers complain that NBC’s home channel relies too much on tape-delayed events and “up close and personal” human interest segments. The good news for 2018 is that even though Pyeongchang is 14 hours ahead of Eastern Time, NBC plans to air as much of its coverage as possible live. In primetime and in late night (which the network is calling prime time plus), viewers can expect live downhill and freestyle skiing, cross-country, ski jumping, snowboarding, short-track and long-track speed-skating, skeleton, bobsled and a disproportionately heavy amount of figure skating. In the afternoons — beginning around 3 p.m. Eastern, daily — NBC will have still more skating and skiing, as well as biathlon, luge, bobsled and skeleton.

NBC generally tailors its network Olympic telecasts to a wide TV audience, not necessarily to sports nuts. If you’re tuned into your local NBC affiliate, expect an emphasis on storytelling and pageantry, with a focus on American athletes. For more competition-driven telecasts, turn to some of NBC’s affiliate networks if you have cable.

NBCSN

The lion’s share of NBC’s televised coverage will happen here — a wide variety of sports, airing almost round the clock. Medal rounds for most of the marquee competitions will be on your local NBC channel during primetime; but NBCSN will air prelims, pool play and early heats aplenty — including during evenings, when the channel will also host gold medal finals for biathlon, bobsled, cross-country skiing, luge, Nordic combined, short-track, ski jumping, snowboarding and speed skating.

CNBC

A few Olympics ago, NBC discovered that when it aired the men’s and women’s curling tournaments — even when the sport was relegated to one of its non-sports cable channels — American audiences tuned in, getting hooked on a competition they otherwise rarely see. The tradition will continue this year on CNBC, with games starting in the late afternoons (around 5 p.m. Eastern). CNBC will also air some hockey in its late prime time slot (around 10 p.m.).

USA

As with CNBC, USA will feature over 40 hours of Olympics coverage, also specialized. This will be mainly a home for hockey, as well as for more curling. USA’s slate of games will typically begin in the wee hours after midnight and continue past dawn, ending around the time most people on the East Coast are arriving at the office. USA joins the lineup a little late, with its first telecast beginning in the early hours of Feb. 14.

Olympic Channel

As one might expect, the Olympic Channel will be dedicated exclusively to the Winter Games throughout the duration. Rather than focusing on live sports, however, its coverage will be focused on highlights, news, interviews and medal ceremonies.

I’m away from my TV. What are my options?

If you’re stuck at work — or anywhere with access to a computer — NBCOlympics.com will be streaming the Games live, in their entirety. That’s “every second of competition streamed for all 15 sports and 102 events,” according to NBC, as well as some practice sessions, including for figure skating. If you’re on a tablet or a smartphone, the NBC Sports mobile app will carry the same content as the website. (The app is also available for a handful of set-top boxes, including Roku, Apple TV, Chromecast, Amazon’s Fire TV and Xbox, if you prefer to watch on your television.)

Unlike in years past, NBC’s online coverage will be available during prime time. And even events that aren’t being shown on NBC or its cable partners will be streaming live. What’s more, those with the proper technology can strap on their virtual-reality goggles and watch some sports in an immersive 360-degree presentation.

Both the website and the app require viewers to authenticate up-front that they have a cable, satellite or telco TV subscription, and streaming is free to anyone with one of those subscriptions. Cord-cutters can also watch Olympics coverage on the website and app by authenticating their subscriptions to live TV services like Hulu With Live TV, YouTube TV, Sling TV, DirecTV Now, Playstation Vue, CenturyLink Stream and FuboTV, according to NBC Sports. (See below for more on those services.)

NBC’s streaming coverage is unavailable outside of the United States and its territories. For more on requirements and restrictions, check NBC’s FAQ.

I cut the cord already. What can I watch?

Plenty. If you’ve read our cord-cutting guide, you know that not having a cable or satellite subscription is no longer an impediment to watching live sports. If nothing else, you can at least get what’s airing on your local NBC affiliate by hustling to any big box store and picking up an indoor HDTV antenna.

Several of the major subscription streaming services and other providers offer live-stream TV packages, which include not just NBC, but can also include CNBC, USA and NBCSN. Services including Hulu With Live TV, YouTube TV, Sling TV Blue, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, FuboTV and CenturyLink Stream all have NBC as part of their standard packages, and they offer NBC’s cable affiliates either within their standard package, as part of other entry-level packages of comparable price, or as add-ons for a marginal extra monthly fee. Many of these services also include some cloud DVR storage if you want to catch up with the day’s hockey and curling action later. (Click the Live TV tab in our cord-cutting guide for a more detailed look at these services, including cost comparisons.)

Haven’t yet subscribed to a live-TV streamer? Some of these services offer five- or seven-day free trials, so if you’re interested in finally trying some of them out, you can watch the Olympics while you’re at it.

Not all of these subscription services are available in every region, and some restrictions may apply as to what you can see. Go to the websites’ sign-up pages, and you will usually be asked to enter your zip code in order to confirm what’s available. Also, bear in mind that rights issues will prevent some programming from being recordable.

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