It’s 2026 Winter Olympics time: These are the best ways to watch

The 2026 Winter Olympics run from February 6 through February 22, split across Milan and the mountain venues of Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy. If you’re watching from the U.S., that means early mornings, long afternoons of competition, and a nightly primetime wrap-up designed for people who didn’t set an alarm for 3 a.m.

What’s different this time is how you can watch the Games. For the first time, one streaming service will carry every single event live and on demand—no extra logins, no channel confusion, and no cable box required.

This guide is for cord-cutters who want the simplest, cheapest, least annoying way to watch the Winter Olympics. We’ll break down your options, explain what you’ll get with each one, and help you pick the setup that makes sense for how you watch TV now, not how you watched it 10 years ago.

The broadcast breakdown

NBCUniversal has the U.S. broadcast rights to the Olympics locked up through 2036, and this year they’re spreading coverage across familiar ground: broadcast, cable, and streaming. But how you watch depends on how you’re set up.

If you still get local channels–with a TV antenna, a live TV-streaming service such as Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, YouTube TV, or (ugh) traditional cable TV–NBC will carry major daytime events along with its usual primetime highlight show, this time branded “Primetime in Milan.” It’s where you’ll find the big-ticket stuff: figure-skating finals, marquee hockey matchups, Shaun White–style snowboarding drama, and the like.

The cable bundle gets you USA Network, CNBC, and a temporary revival of NBCSN (NBC Sports Network), all running round-the-clock coverage. Expect a steady diet of curling, hockey, and deep dives into Team USA. It’s the traditional way to immerse yourself if you’re paying for a live TV package.

Then there’s Peacock. It’s the only place to watch every event live; plus, full-event replays, highlight shows, and oodles extras. If you want the full Olympic firehose without a cable bill, this is where you’ll find it.

Option 1: Stream everything on Peacock

If you want all the Olympics, a Peacock subscription is your best choice.

There are two plans that include sports coverage (the $7.99-per-month Peacock Select plan does not):

• Peacock Premium runs $10.99 a month or $109.99 for the year.
• Peacock Premium Plus is $16.99 a month or $169.99 annually and adds a live feed of your local NBC station; plus, ad-free on-demand viewing.

What sets Peacock apart isn’t just the volume of Olympics coverage, it’s how you can watch it. The Gold Zone channel jumps between live medal moments. You might think of it as a Winter Olympics version of NFL RedZone. Multiview lets you stream up to four events at once, whether you’re on your TV or your phone. And the new Rinkside Live cams offer coaching and bench views for figure skating and hockey—angles you won’t get anywhere else.

If you’re a cord-cutter who doesn’t care about traditional channels, this is the cleanest, cheapest path to the full Games.

Peacock has strategically stopped offering free trials to its service, but there is a sneaky workaround to getting a free trial to Peacock Premium: Sign up for a free trial to Instacart+ and you’ll also qualify for a free Peacock trial. Peacock Premium is also included as a Walmart+ subscriber perk (you can choose between that service and Paramount+, and switch between the two at will for as long as you have a subscription). A Walmart+ subscription costs $12.95 per month or $98 per year, and a 30-day free trial is available.

Option 2: A live TV streaming service

If you enjoy channel surfing and seeing what’s on “right now,” live TV streaming services—in industry parlance, virtual multichannel video programming distributors (vMVPDs)—offer a way to watch the Olympics without giving up that familiar channel grid. These services mimic cable, just without the cable box.

Here’s a rundown of your best choices, sorted by price:

• Sling TV (Blue): $45.99/month. The cheapest option, but NBC is only available in select markets. You do get USA Network, so it works if you mainly want the cable coverage. Sign up for Sling TV (Blue).
• Hulu + Live TV: $82.99/month. Includes NBC, USA Network, CNBC, and the revived NBCSN, along with DVR service in the cloud. Sign up for Hulu + Live TV.
• YouTube TV: $82.99/month. The same channel lineup as Hulu + Live TV, but with a better cloud DVR service and the option of sports streaming in 4K resolution, which can make events like downhill skiing or speed skating look incredible (albeit at an added cost of $9.99 per month). Sign up for YouTube TV.
• DirecTV: Starting at $89.99/month. While it has the same channel lineup as Hulu + Live and YouTube TV, this service comes the closest to replicating the traditional cable TV viewing experience. Sign up for DirecTV.

Fubo is one live TV streaming service you won’t want to sign up for ahead of the Olympics, as it’s currently embroiled in a carriage dispute with NBC parent Comcast. And that’s doubly unfortunate because unlike YouTube TV, Fubo doesn’t charge extra for streaming sporting events in 4K.

Each of those other services costs more than Peacock, but you’re essentially paying for a traditional TV experience in a digital wrapper. But if you want a grid guide, instant rewind, a DVR, and the ability to flip between events like it’s still 2012, live TV streaming services are the way to go. That’s especially true if you want both broadcast and cable channels in one place. We’ve reviewed all the live TV streaming services in depth and can provide you with more details about each of them.

Pro tips to maximize your Olympics experience

1. Don’t sleep through the good stuff
   Milan is six hours ahead of the U.S. East Coast. That means live events can start as early as 2 a.m. ET and wrap up by mid-afternoon. If you’re not the type to wake up before sunrise for luge, Peacock’s full-event replays are your best friend. Your other option would be to avail yourself of the cloud DVR any of the live TV streaming services offers.

2. Upgrade your picture
   NBC is streaming the Games in 4K HDR, which makes fast-action sports like speed skating and snowboard cross look razor-sharp. To see it, you’ll need the right combo:

• A TV or monitor with 4K resolution (or higher)
• A 4K smart TV or a 4K-capable streaming device (Roku Streaming Stick Plus, Amazon Fire Stick 4K, Apple TV 4K, or the like; read about our top picks in media streamers)
• A service that supports 4K streaming (Peacock or or YouTube TV with the 4K add-on)

3. Go old-school to save money
   Still have a TV with an onboard tuner? An inexpensive antenna will pull in your local NBC station in HD (read about our favorite TV antennas). You won’t get USA Network or the deep coverage on Peacock, but you’ll still catch prime-time highlights and marquee events for free. It’s a smart fallback, especially if you’re trying to cut monthly costs.

4. Supplement your TV antenna with an over-the-air DVR
   Since so much of the Olympic action will occur in the early-morning hours, adding an over-the-air digital video recorder to your antenna and TV tuner will let you time-shift your event viewing to a more convenient time, provided you can avoid spoilers carried by news services.

5. Don’t pay full price if you don’t have to
   Peacock offers significant discounts to verified students, medical professionals and first-responders, and members of the military. And while we haven’t seen standalone free trials, don’t overlook the opportunity to piggyback a free Peacock trial on top of a free trial to Instacart+ or Walmart+ (see links above). Most of the live TV streaming services also offer free trials, some longer than others.

Final recommendation: What’s the smartest play?

If all you care about is watching the Olympics—every event, live or replayed—Peacock Premium is the move. It’s cheap, simple, and gives you everything without the clutter of channels you don’t need.

If you’re someone who still likes flipping through a guide, Sling TV (Blue) is your cheapest option–provided it offers local channels in your area (you can check by entering your zip code on the Sling website). If local channels aren’t available, you’ll at least get the USA Network coverage. If neither of those scenarios works for you, Hulu + Live TV or YouTube TV are your best options.

Trying to spend as little as possible? Combine an over-the-air antenna with a month of Peacock Premium and call it a win. You’ll get the biggest moments live on NBC, and the rest on-demand whenever you want.

Let the Games begin

With the right setup, your Olympics experience can be faster, sharper, and far more flexible than the old-school TV schedule ever allowed. Just stream, watch, and get back to rooting for your favorite underdog in the biathlon.