Ready to get fired up for curling again?
The 2022 Winter Olympics from Beijing start this week, reacquainting viewers with sports that most people only care about for two weeks every four years (sorry, biathlon, but it’s the truth).
Assuming no COVID breakouts, all nine American gold-medal winners from the last Winter Games in PyeongChang, South Korea, (including snowboarders Shaun White and Chloe Kim, skier Mikaela Shiffrin and figure skater Nathan Chen) are returning to defend their titles, along with a new batch of medal hopefuls (such as snowboarder Jamie Anderson, ski jumper Kevin Bickner and luger Summer Britcher).
The first events begin Wednesday, Feb. 2, ahead of the Opening Ceremony on Friday, Feb. 4. The Games will run until the Closing Ceremony on Feb. 20, and can be seen on NBCUniversal’s family of networks. Keep in mind Beijing is 13 hours ahead of Eastern time (that’s 16 ahead of Pacific time).
How to watch for free
The only (legal) way to watch for free is on NBC, through an antenna on your TV. NBC will feature the most high-profile events, including alpine skiing, figure skating and snowboarding among its 200 hours of coverage over 18 nights of prime time. Prime-time coverage starts every night at 8 p.m. Eastern (7 p.m. on Sundays).
How to watch on cable
A cable subscription will get you NBC, plus its cable partners, USA and CNBC. USA will carry nearly 400 hours of programming — including events like curling, ice hockey and alpine skiing — over 19 days, starting Feb. 2, including 24-hour coverage most days.
CNBC will air about 80 hours of coverage, primarily curling and ice hockey, during the evenings.
How to stream
The only place to stream the Olympics is on Comcast’s CMCSA, -0.10% Peacock, and only on its paid tiers. Peacock’s Premium tier costs $ 4.99 a month, with ads, or there’s an ad-free $ 9.99-a-month level.
While Peacock’s Summer Olympics coverage was a bit of a mess, NBCUniversal promises the Winter Games will be much more streamlined and simpler, with live streaming of every event and on-demand replays of every event available right after they end.
Also read: Why Peacock, Apple and HBO Max are streaming must-haves for February 2022 — but Netflix is not
In all, Peacock will offer 2,200 hours of coverage, starting Feb. 2. That includes the Opening and Closing Ceremonies, coverage of all 15 sports, NBC’s nightly primetime show, exclusive daily studio programming, medal ceremonies and highlight clips.
Daily schedule: Here’s what’s happening, sport by sport
Peacock will feature four exclusive daily studio shows: “The Olympics Show,” 8-10 a.m. Eastern, with highlights, interviews and previews; “Olympic Ice,” 10-11 a.m. Eastern, focusing on ice skating; “Winter Gold,” 11 a.m.-noon Eastern, featuring the day’s highlights; and the overnight highlight show “Top Highlights,” 8 p.m.-8 a.m. Eastern.
Peacock Premium is available for no additional fee for most Comcast and Cox cable subscribers, and is available on Roku ROKU, +1.35% devices; Apple AAPL, -0.10% devices; Amazon AMZN, +1.08% Fire TV and Fire tablets; Google GOOGL, +1.73% GOOG, +1.61% platforms, including Chromecast; Microsoft’s MSFT, -0.71% Xbox One consoles; Sony SONY, +0.81% PlayStation 4 consoles; and Samsung 005930, +2.81%, Vizio VZIO, +1.39% and LG 066570, +2.82% smart TVs.
NBCUniversal channels can also be seen on live-TV streaming services like Hulu Live, Sling TV and YouTube TV.
How else to watch
NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app will also carry more than 2,100 hours of programming, including live streaming of all events, updated medal counts, athlete profiles and a viewing schedule. Note both NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app require a cable account to access live-streaming.