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Winter Olympics 2018: When they start, how to stream and more

Don't miss any of the action when the XXII Winter Olympics get underway in PyeongChang, South Korea this week.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor
Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
Matt Elliott
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Coverage of the XXIII Olympic Winter Games is scheduled to begin on Wednesday, Feb. 7 in PyeongChang, South Korea with a live stream of a new Winter Olympic event, mixed doubles curling. The opening ceremonies will take place two days later on Friday, Feb. 9 because, I suppose, you can keep men and women from curling together for only so long. The closing ceremonies will take place on Sunday, Feb. 25. You can see the full schedule of events here.

How to watch the Olympics 2018 Opening Ceremony

NBC will once again broadcast the Winter Olympics. Despite the huge difference in time zones between the South Korea and the US, it will live stream 1,800 hours of the Olympics. These will also be the first Winter Games to offer a live stream online of what NBC is currently broadcasting on TV.

Here's what you need to know to catch all of the Winter Olympic action this month.

  • What: XXIII Olympic Winter Games
  • When: Feb. 7 to Feb. 25
  • Where: PyeongChang, South Korea
  • Channels: NBC, NBCSN, CNBC, USA and the Olympic Channel
  • Live streaming: NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app
Watch this: How to stream the Winter Olympics on any device

On TV

NBC will offer live broadcast coverage across its networks. In addition to your local NBC channel, you'll be able to watch Olympic events on cable channels NBCSN, CNBC, USA and the Olympic Channel.

Schedule of events

You can see the full schedule of Olympics events here, including which events are currently live, but here's a quick overview of the schedule.

  • Alpine Skiing: Feb. 8-15, 17-24
  • Biathlon: Feb. 10-24
  • Bobsled: Feb. 11-12, 17-25
  • Cross-Country Skiing: Feb. 10-18, 21-22, 24-25
  • Curling: Feb. 8-25
  • Figure Skating: Feb. 9, 11-25
  • Freestyle Skiing: Feb. 9, 10-13, 15-23
  • Hockey: Feb. 10-25
  • Luge: Feb. 9-16
  • Nordic Combined: Feb. 14-15, 20-23
  • Short Track Speed Skating: Feb. 10-11, 13-14, 17-18, 20-23
  • Skeleton: Feb. 13-18
  • Ski Jumping: 8, 10-13, 15-20
  • Snowboarding: Feb. 10-16, 19, 21-24
  • Speed Skating: Feb. 10-25

Live streaming online

Each and every Winter Olympic event will be available to stream live and on-demand on NBCOlympics.com on computers via the NBC Sports app on phones , tablets and connected TVs . (The NBC Sports app is available for iOS or for Android as well as the Amazon Fire , Apple TV , Comcast X1, Chromecast , Roku, Windows 10 , Xbox and select Samsung devices.)

The catch is that you will need to prove that you are pay TV subscriber to access the live streams. Without authentication, you will be able to stream 30 minutes of coverage on your first visit and five minutes each day after that. Authentication is a drag, but then again, NBC did shell out $4.38 billion for the rights to broadcast the four Olympic Games from 2014 to 2020.

What's the difference in time zones between PyeongChang and the US?

PyeongChang is 14 hours ahead of New York and 17 hours ahead of Los Angeles.

Which Team USA athletes have the best chance at gold?

Mikaela Shiffrin won gold at the 2014 Games in Sochi in slalom ski racing as an 18-year-old, becoming the youngest slalom champion in Olympic history. She's the heavy favorite to repeat in the slalom in PyeongChang and is among the favorites in giant slalom and combined (a mix of downhill and slalom). She may even race in the speed events, downhill and Super G.

After missing the 2014 Games in Sochi because of a knee injury, ski racer Lindsey Vonn is set to race in downhill and Super G. She won gold in the downhill and bronze in Super G in the 2010 Games in Vancouver.

Snowboarding legend Shaun White won gold in the halfpipe in 2008 and 2012, but finished fourth in 2014. He will be looking to add a third gold medal to his collection in the halfpipe in PyeongChang.

Only 17 years old, snowboarding phenom Chloe Kim is favored to win gold in the halfpipe. She qualified for the last Winter Games just to prove she could; at 13 years old she was too young to compete.

Two-time US champion Nathan Chen is among the gold-medal favorites in figure skating. He is the first figure skater to land five quadruple jumps during a performance. (That is roughly five more than I can do.)

Short-track speedskater Maame Biney was born in Ghana and moved to the US when she was five. She'll be racing in her first Olympics as a 17-year-old and is the first African-American woman to make the US Olympic speedskating team.

Are there any new events making their Olympic debut?

Yes, these Olympic Games will introduce four new events. In addition to the aforementioned mixed-doubles curling (one male, one female and six stones per team), you can check out big air snowboarding (huge jumps and lots of flips and twists and other tricks), mass start speed skating (the madness of short-track speedskating on the long track) and team skiing (the mixed doubles of alpine skiing).

Cord-cutters' guide to the Winter Olympics

You can use one of the big five live-TV streaming services to watch the Winter Olympics. All five offer NBC, but you'll need to make sure that the service offers a live feed of NBC and not just on-demand content in your area. And you'll need to check if NBC's cable channels are included if you want to be able to engage in Olympic channel surfing.

In many markets, you can watch on-demand but not live content from the local networks. Each of the streaming services offers a free, seven-day trial so you could sign up and watch a portion of the Olympics free of charge.

DirecTV Now

DirecTV Now's basic, $35-a-month Live a Little package includes NBC You can use its channel lookup tool to see if you get a live feed of NBC and the other local networks in your zip code.

Hulu with Live TV

Hulu with Live TV costs $40 a month and includes NBC, but check to see which live channels Hulu offers in your area.

PlayStation Vue

The $40 Access plan of Sony's live streaming service includes NBC. Channel lineups vary by region, so check out which live, local networks you get on the PlayStation Vue Plans page.

Sling TV

Sling TV's $25-a-month Blue plan includes NBC. Channel lineups vary by region so check out this Sling TV FAQ page to see if you can watch a live, local feed of NBC in your area.

YouTube TV

YouTube TV costs $35 a month and includes live local channels, including NBC. It's available in dozens of major metro markets, with more being added all the time.