The 2026 Winter Olympics are officially underway in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, and if you’re looking to catch all the action without dropping cash on a cable subscription or streaming service, you’re in luck. There is actually a way to watch the Olympics for free, and legally. Though you will miss out on a lot of the events.
NBC is broadcasting the Winter Olympics across its family of networks. But here’s the thing, NBC is a free OTA channel. If you want access to everything, including live coverage of marquee events like figure skating, snowboarding, and hockey, you can snag a free trial of Peacock Premium. The service offers a 7-day trial for new users, which should cover a solid chunk of the Games if you time it right.
If you’re willing to juggle a couple of free trials from other streaming services that carry NBC, like YouTube TV , Hulu + Live TV , or Fubo , you can essentially watch the entire Olympics without paying a dime. In fact, YouTube TV is offering a 21-day free trial right now, and discounts for the first two months of your service.
- How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics
- When do the 2026 Winter Olympics Start?
- When does the 2026 Winter Olympics end?
- Who is hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics?
- What countries are banned from participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics?
- Where can I see the schedule of events for the 2026 Winter Olympics?
How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics
As mentioned already, NBC has the streaming rights to the Olympics in the US. In fact, they just signed a new deal that keeps the Olympics on NBC through 2036. Which means that you’re going to need a service that has access to NBC and/or Peacock, NBC’s streaming service.
The easiest way to watch the Olympics is going to be with Peacock, of course. As it will have everything NBC is broadcasting, as well as some events on-demand and it’s also cheaper than YouTube TV, Fubo, and other streaming TV services.
NBC says that Peacock will have every moment from February 4 through February 22 streaming live. It’ll also be available on NBCOlympics.com and NBC.com, but you’ll need a cable subscription to stream on those sites.
So you need the Peacock Premium plan, which is $10.99 per month, or Premium Plus, which is $16.99 per month. The main difference between these two is the ads for on-demand content and the ability to download content for offline viewing.
You can also bundle Peacock with Apple TV+ for as low as $14.99 per month.
Peacock
Peacock is the best way to catch every moment of the 2026 Winter Olympics from Milan.
Watch the Olympics with a Streaming Live TV Service
What’s great about these services as they have unlimited cloud DVR, so you can record all of the Olympics and watch at your leisure. The advantage to this over Peacock is that you can fast-forward through the commercials, and also the fact that Peacock doesn’t let you rewind live content.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV offers a free 21-day trial, then $59.99 per month for your first two months.
DIRECTV Stream
DIRECTV Stream is offering up to $40 off your first month of service.
Fubo
Fubo offers a 7-day free trial and then a discounted rate for one month.
Hulu + Live TV
Hulu + Live TV offers a 3-day free trial, then its $89.99/month. Which does include Hulu, Disney+ and ESPN Select.
How to watch the 2026 Winter Olympics for free
There is a legal way to watch the Olympics for free, since NBC is an OTA channel. If you have an OTA antenna (you can pick one up for pretty cheap, too), you can get NBC for free. However, keep in mind that NBC typically does not broadcast the Olympics 24/7 during the games. And the majority of it will be on tape-delay. But if you are one who only wants to watch some of the games, and not a hardcore Olympics fan, then this works out really well.
When do the 2026 Winter Olympics Start?
Officially, the 2026 Winter Olympics start on Friday, February 6, 2026. However, some events start competition a few days before the Opening Ceremonies. So a few events started on Wednesday, February 4.
When does the 2026 Winter Olympics end?
The Olympics are typically about two weeks long, and this year the Olympics will end on February 22, 2026.
Who is hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics?
Italy is hosting the 2026 Winter Olympics, specifically Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo are the official host cities this time around. This marks the third time that the Winter Olympics are taking place in Italy, and the first since the Turin Games 20 years ago.
In 2030, the Winter Olympics move back to France for the first time since 1992, where the French Alps will host the 26th Winter Olympic Games.
What countries are banned from participating in the 2026 Winter Olympics?
Similar to the 2022 Winter Games, Belarus and Russia will not be allowed to enter teams at the 2026 Winter Olympics. This is due to the ongoing conflict with Ukraine. Instead, Athletes from those two countries will participate under the Individual Neutral Athlete banner.
Where can I see the schedule of events for the 2026 Winter Olympics?
The official Olympics website has a pretty in-depth schedule for all of the events taking place at the Winter Games. The times will be local to your timezone (unless you’re using a VPN), so you can see when things you want to watch are happening.
