Let the Games Begin

Grab some coffee and your favorite streaming device

Feb 04, 2022

Today’s the day. Right now, in fact. The Opening Ceremony begins at 7am Eastern.

So if you’re up early turn on NBC now, or the re-airing in prime time tonight, or stream anytime on Peacock. Television coverage of the Olympics has exploded in recent years, and as a big fan of both TV and the Olympics, I am here for it.1

By comparison, Tokyo 2020 had 7000 hours of total coverage.

In 2014, NBC paid $7.65 billion USD for the rights to six Olympic Games, and they want you to see what they spent all that cash on.2

This Winter there will be nearly 700 hours of Olympics on TV. That’s a cool 36 hours a day over the 19 day games. Good old-fashioned NBC will air almost 200 hours coverage including of 18 nights of Prime Time Olympic Coverage with Mike Tirico™️. Elsewhere on cable, USA will air 400 hours of coverage and CNBC will kick in another 80 hours, mostly after markets close. (And mostly CURLING!)

But the real story is (as usual) streaming. NBC is promising over 2,800 hours of streaming Olympics on it’s struggling service, Peacock. Will the Olympics save Peacock? Who cares! The important part is that it’s going to be around for at least the next two weeks and it’s going to have every moment of every event (and a bunch of training and practice events too).

As if all that wasn’t enough, NBC is also airing this year’s Super Bowl, on what they have dubbed Super Gold Sunday. True American Hero Mike Tirico™️ will anchor the coverage in both Beijing and Los Angeles (home of Super Bowl LVI), flying 12,000+ miles round trip in one weekend - helllooo frequent flyer miles.

Whether you tune in for the 22 cameras positioned around the Figure Skating rink or the Snowboard halfpipe “raw motion data tracking,” there is something for everyone.

If you can’t figure out how to watch, NBC has a handy guide.