The 2026 Winter Olympics are right around the corner! Here at Outside, we’re excited to tune into the newly recognized sport of ski mountaineering and cheer on the alpine skiers, snowboarders, and other winter sports athletes.
Opening ceremony of the Winter Games will be held on February 6 in Milan, Italy. But some competitions (like curling) will start as early as February 4 in the neighboring city of Cortina d’Ampezzo, co-host of the event. The festivities will come to a close on February 22 with a performance titled “Beauty in Action,” highlighting motion in nature and humanity. This will be Italy’s third time hosting.
Just over two billion people are expected to tune in based on previous numbers. NBC will be the broadcasting host once again, but there are other ways to watch.
You can find the full schedule of events, hour by hour, here. As for viewing, we’ve set up a guide.
Traditional Broadcasting and Primetime Coverage
The 2026 Winter Games will air primarily on NBC, with some events airing on the USA Network and on CNBC.
The opening Ceremony titled “Armonia,” or Harmony, begins at 8:30 P.M. on February 6 in Italy, which is 2:30 P.M. in the Eastern time zone of the United States. Live coverage will begin around noon EST, a couple hours before the show.
NBC will air the most anticipated events live: figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, speed skating, and more, equalling about five hours a day, sometimes beginning as early as 4 A.M. EST.
It will also broadcast Primetime in Milan, “an enhanced, three-hour Olympics primetime show hosted by Mike Tirico that will feature the top events, stars and storylines,” according to NBC. “The program will take the American audience inside the Olympic day from Italy, filled with the day’s great competitions, moments, stories, raw emotion, winter scenery, and the culture of the host nation.”
Comprehensive Olympic coverage will also air on the USA Network and CNBC. The former hosting extensive Team USA coverage, and the latter catching under-the-radar events not covered by NBC.
How to Stream the 2026 Olympic Games
Olympic coverage will be the most robust on the streaming platform Peacock. Peacock will be the only place to catch all 116 medal events live (and on demand), according to NBCUniversal.
The streaming platform will also bring back the Gold Zone and an original series called Chasing Gold: Milan Cortina 2026. “This original docuseries gives viewers an inside look at the world of athletes pursuing their Olympic dreams in the lead-up to the Games,” according to Peacock.
Other viewing options include the NBC app and NBCOlympics.com.
Use your sign-in credentials if watching live on NBC, or log into Peacock’s livestream of the Winter Games. A Peacock subscription costs $7.99 for Select monthly, $10.99 for Premium, and $16.99 for Premium Plus.
Replays of the Winter Games will be available on the NBC Olympics website and apps, as well as on Peacock. Peacock will offer full replays of each sport as well as curated highlights clips.
The post How to Watch the 2026 Winter Olympics appeared first on Outside Online.
