Don't Have Cable? Here's How You Can Stream Olympics Coverage

Now that the Super Bowl is over, sports fans are turning their attention to the winter Olympics, which officially start on Friday (but which really get underway today). Most of the coverage of the games will be on NBC (the same network that brought you the Super Bowl) and its affiliated cable networks. But if you don't have cable or access to broadcast TV, you still might be able to catch some of the action. The secret is tapping into NBC's coverage via an online streaming service, and you've got quite a few options for doing that. Read on to find out what they are.

Via The Verge.

The 2018 Winter Olympics officially get started tonight from Pyeongchang, South Korea with mixed doubles curling. This is a new event for the Olympics and comes in advance of Friday’s opening ceremony and the lighting of the Olympic torch. More competition is scheduled for tomorrow including figure skating and freestyle skiing.

If you’re like me and find the highs and lows of the Olympics irresistible, you’re probably wondering about the best way to watch the games. After all, where else can you bounce around from seeing pure elation when someone achieves a lifelong dream to the embarrassment and anguish they show after totally blowing it with one wrong move?

NBC is the official broadcast partner for the 2018 Winter Olympics here in the United States and plans to blanket its various NBCUniversal networks — NBC, NBC Sports Network, USA, CNBC, and the Olympic Channel — with coverage. Here’s how that shakes out:

If you don’t have cable, the NBC Sports app will let you stream up to 30 minutes of live video initially. So if you track things on social media and only care about one event or athlete, maybe that’ll be enough to get your fix. After that first viewing, you can watch 5 minutes of live video each day of the Olympics — but that’s really not enough to be of any use. What if you want to see more action live?

It’s here where internet TV services like Hulu, YouTube TV, Sling TV, DirecTV Now, and PlayStation Vue are going to come in handy. Almost all of them offer a free trial if you haven’t signed up before, but those won’t necessarily last long enough to cover everything. Sling TV, Hulu with Live TV, and DirecTV Now will give you seven days. YouTube TV’s trial is 14 days, which should be enough to cover everything at the Pyeongchang games. PlayStation Vue’s trial is only five days.

Hulu built a custom interface for the Winter Olympics and will let you follow individual sports if you don’t want to be overwhelmed by stuff you’ll never watch. Don’t you get enough hockey outside of the Olympics, anyway?

Find out more about your viewing options at The Verge.

What's your favorite winter Olympics event? Let us know in the comments below.