Put PS Vue and SlingTV together and you’re covered for the whole Olympics sans money. It’s safer for viewers at home, but for those without cable, it’s also a marathon of ingenuity and clever thinking to even watch it. The International Olympic Committee estimates that 5 billion people will watch the Olympics this year. When you click on one of the livestream links for the first time, it will take you to the App Store to download free.
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We won’t list every country, but rest assured, the Olympics will be on television in essentially all of them.
In the US, NBC will be your headquarters for the next month.
NBC’s over-the-air network remains the primary destination, though. To see which channels will show each specific event, check here.
Much of this requires having a cable or satellite TV subscription, though as an alternative, you can sign up for Sony’s PlayStation Vue service for $30 or $40 a month to get extensive access to NBC’s app and website.
Cons: It’s costlier than Sling TV Blue and while you can subscribe to Playstation Vue on PlayStation 3 & 4, Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, Android and Fire Tablets, not every device offers the same NBC entertainment suite. Hardcore gymnastics and track & field fans will get the added bonus of being able to access multiple concurrent video feeds during major live events. You’ll have to wait at least an hour. NBC will also broadcast 100 hours of events in virtual reality, but only for those with Samsung Galaxy phones compatible with Gear VR.
Want to watch the opening ceremony in the United States when it kicks off in Rio?
Bosses at NBC – which had paid $1.2bn for the digital and broadcast rights – made a decision to broadcast on a one-hour tape delay in the Eastern time zone, and a four-hour delay in the Pacific time zone.
The NBC Sports cable network will be the busiest, airing 330 hours of Olympics programming covering 20 sports.
Cord-cutters, this section is for you.
With Sling TV, you’ll get almost all the Olympic channels. However, those channels are only available in these markets: Chicago, Dallas, Hartford, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Philadelphia, San Francisco, San Diego and Washington, D.C. Usually, subscribers have to pay $5 extra for MSNBC and CNBC, but Sling is offering a free preview of those channels through the games. On TV, expect most of the focus to be on Americans and top contenders. It’s not yet clear whether Vue will get the temporary soccer and basketball channels.
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NBC is showing the Olympics on its over-the-air network and cable channels Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBC Sports Network and USA Network.
