The Easiest Ways to Watch the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics

Photo: Jonathan Nackstrand/AFP via Getty Images

Ah, the Winter Olympics. Where else can you find an abundance of sparkle, athleticism, and a whole number of sports that you don’t believe are sports until you become absolutely obsessed with them? This year, the 16-day event will take place in Beijing, though because of literally everything (a.k.a. the ongoing coronavirus pandemic), only the competitors will be visiting the country, so we normies — and most of NBC’s sports announcers — will be watching Stateside. Although I imagine for us normies, watching the Winter Olympics from our cozy, warm couch was the plan all along, so if you’re wondering how to watch the glorious curling, skating, skiing, and more, we’ll break down your options right here.

Now, the first thing to note is NBCUniversal is the hub of all things Olympics. Cable users, NBC is where you’ll tune in to see your figure skating, your ski jumping — you get the point. For cord cutters, it can be as simple as flipping a channel on, depending which streaming service you have. Since NBC is the cable king of the Olympics, Peacock — the channel’s subsidiary — is also, fingers crossed, planning to make streaming the Olympics as easy as flipping a channel on by having every live event available for premium subscribers. So if you don’t have cable, Peacock is your best bet, assuming it’s not a repeat of last year’s Tokyo Olympics coverage. But hey, you live and you learn. (The schedule, by the way, kicks off with live coverage on NBC, plus an enhanced replay of the opening ceremony at 8 p.m. ET Friday.)

Just make sure you sign up for Peacock Premium, the $5-per-month tier, to get all the Olympic goods — from the sporting events to the opening and closing ceremonies and even a few original documentaries. Peacock is really out here going for a redemption arc. But if you’re looking for additional options, services with live-TV features such as Hulu with Live TV, FuboTV, Sling, and YouTube TV are other ways to tune in to the Winter Olympics. The downside? Those streaming services are way pricier than Peacock’s $5 monthly subscription because you’d get way more live channels than just NBC and other NBC-adjacent channels. All those streamers — except for Peacock and Hulu with Live TV — have free trials, but they range from just three to seven days. So honestly, Peacock, you win this round.

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