While it seems like we just finished the Summer Olympics, it’s time for the Winter Olympics. Which will begin with the Opening Ceremonies in Beijing on Friday, February 4. Here’s how you’ll be able to watch the 2022 Beijing Olympics. NBC does have exclusivity over the Olympics as usual.
How to watch 2022 Beijing Olympics
There are two main ways that you can watch the Winter Games this year. You can either watch on NBC and its suite of channels, or watch on Peacock TV. We’ll go over each way, and which way might be the best for you.
Watching via NBC
The Olympics will be broadcast on a few different channels – NBC, NBC Sports, The Golf Channel, USA Network, CNBC, Telemundo, Universo, and The Olympic Channel. So whatever streaming TV service or cable service you have, will work for watching the Olympics. And if you don’t subscribe to them, you can also get an OTA antenna and get NBC for free. However, if you use YouTube TV or FuboTV, you can actually watch the Olympics in 4K HDR with Dolby Atmos sound. There are a couple of caveats here though. For YouTube TV, you will need to be subscribed to the new 4K option that is an additional $20 per month. For FuboTV, the olympics will only stream in 4K in these markets: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth and Boston. With NBC, they will mostly only show the events that get the highest ratings. And most of that will be during prime-time. Meaning that it won’t be live the majority of the time. But if you watch via the other channels, you will see more sports and more of it will be live. Remember, Tokyo is 13 hours ahead of the east coast. So a good bit of the events will be taking place while we are all sleeping. The good news here is that you can record all of the Olympics coverage and watch it whenever you want. This is where YouTube TV comes out on top, seeing as you can record everything, and not worry about space. As YouTube TV has unlimited cloud DVR. You can search for the Tokyo Olympics and record everything from the opening ceremonies to the closing ceremonies. With FuboTV, you get at least 250 hours of DVR space, and up to 1000 hours, depending on your plan.
Watching via Peacock
Ever since Comcast launched Peacock last year, it was banking heavily on the Olympics to give it a nice selling point over its competitors. Since NBCUniversal does have exclusive rights to the Olympics and it is owned by Comcast. While you’ll be able to watch all of the Olympics on Peacock, it won’t be in 4K HDR, unfortunately. You’ll be able to watch most of the Olympics on the free version of Peacock. But notably, the US Men’s Basketball games will not be available on the free tier. You’ll need to pay $5 per month for Peacock Premium to get that. Or $10 for Peacock Premium Plus (ad-free). If you are a Comcast, or Cox customer, you can get Peacock Premium for free, however.
When does the Olympics start?
The Winter Olympics will start with the Opening Ceremonies on Friday February 4. And end with the Closing Ceremonies on Sunday, February 20. The action will actually get underway on February 5, while some team sports may start ahead of the Opening Ceremonies. There are some new events at the Winter Olympics this year:
MonobobMixed-team aerials in freestyle skiingMen’s big air in freestyle skiingWomen’s big air in freestyle skiingMixed team relay in short-track speedskatingMixed team event in ski jumpingMixed team snowboard cross
So the games will be even more jampacked than normal.
Will there be fans at the events?
Nearly two years ago, COVID-19 was first detected in Wuhan, China. That’s about 650 miles away from Beijing, where the Winter Games are this year. So as you might expect, there are some strict rules for the games this year. Originally, residents of China would be able to buy tickets and attend Olympic events. But on January 17, that plan changed when Beijing got its first case of the Omnicron variant of COVID-19. The general public can no longer buy tickets to the Olympic events. “Given the current situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, in order to ensure the safety of all participants and spectators, it has been decided that tickets should not be sold anymore but be part of an adapted program that will invite groups of spectators to be present on site during the Games,” the International Olympic Committee stated in mid-January. Spectators will be allowed to clap, but not allowed to shout their support. Support staff which includes waiters and cleaners are not allowed to leave the Olympic venues to visit their families. Olympic participants leaving the Games area to travel to other parts of China must spend at least a week in quarantine, followed by at least two weeks of isolation at home.
Where will the next Olympics be?
The next Winter Olympics will take place in Italy, in the cities of Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo. Interestingly, it’s the only future Winter Olympics host that has been named, while the next three Summer Olympics hosts have been named. The 2024 Summer Games will be in Paris, 2028 in Los Angeles, and 2032 in Brisbane, Australia.
