The Tokyo Olympics are finally here, just a little bit behind schedule. The 2020 Olympics are happening right now in 2021, and the games are sure to be worth the wait. But how can you tune in to the Tokyo Olympics without cable? Don't worry: We're here to show you how to stream the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. We'll cover how to stream the Olympic Opening Ceremonies, the Closing Ceremonies, and everything in between: Olympic Golf, Olympic Soccer, and even Olympic Baseball (it's back)!
What Channel Are the Olympics On?
There are many great ways to watch live TV without cable. But which channels do you need to watch the Olympics? The broadcast rights to the Olympics are held by NBCUniversal, which means you’ll be looking for coverage on NBC-owned networks — NBCSN and NBC in particular. It will also be important for you to find a stream of USA Network, and die-hard Team USA fans will also want the Olympic Channel.
Olympics 2021 TV Schedule: What Channel the Opening Ceremony Is On
Olympic Opening Ceremonies 2021: 6:55 AM ET on Friday, July 23 (live broadcast) and 7:30 PM ET on Friday, July 23 (prime-time rebroadcast). NBC
Olympic Closing Ceremonies 2021: Sunday, August 8, 2021 (time TBA). NBC
How to Watch the Olympics Online and Over the Air Without Cable
Hulu + Live TV is a live TV streaming service controlled by Disney. The channel selection is great, and it includes the channels you’ll need to watch the Tokyo Olympics without cable — NBC, NBCSN, USA, and Olympic Channel.
fuboTV bills itself as the best live TV streaming service for sports fans. That may or may not be true, but you’ll certainly find plenty of sports coverage on fuboTV during the Olympics in 2021 because it offers livestreams of NBC, NBCSN, USA Network, and Olympic Channel.
Sling TV wasn’t previously known for carrying local channels, but now it offers an NBC livestream in a few markets. If you live in the right city, you can watch the Olympics events that air on NBC through Sling TV. No matter where you live, you can use Sling TV to watch events on NBCSN, which is available nationwide with the Sling Blue package. Sling TV also has USA Network, and add Olympic Channel with Sling's “Sports Extra” package. For more, check out Sling TV’s complete channel lineup.
YouTube TV
Google’s live TV streaming service offers livestreams of NBC, NBCSN, USA Network, and Olympics Channel. That makes it a strong choice for people who want to catch all the biggest moments at this year’s Tokyo Olympic Games. To find out more about YouTube TV, refer to our YouTube TV review.
Free Over-the-Air TV
NBC has the rights to the Olympics this year, which means the biggest events — including the opening and closing ceremonies — will be broadcast on NBC’s flagship station. If you live in an urban or suburban area, then the odds are very good that you can get all those broadcasts for free over the air.
Some more minor events will be limited to NBCSN, USA Network, or the Olympics Channel, meaning that they won’t be available over the air. But the biggest moments from the games will be on NBC, which means they'll be available to most cord-cutters. Now is a great time to invest in a decent antenna to watch all the great content for free. OTA broadcasts can do just about everything cable broadcasts can: Over-the-air TV is available in high definition, and you can even record OTA broadcasts using OTA DVRs.
Peacock
NBCUniversal's streaming service Peacock is pretty cool — as we wrote in our Peacock review, this service mixes on-demand and live TV content while offering a lot to watch for free. The live TV content includes NBC Sports broadcasts, which means that you'll be able to catch some great Olympics coverage during the 2021 Tokyo Games. Be aware that you may have to spring for Peacock Premium to catch some of the best events. Peacock is a particularly useful tool for watching 2021 Olympic events live; in some cases, prime-time rebroadcasts of certain events are on NBC or NBCSN, but the original livestream of the same events ar scheduled for Peacock (often quite late at night or early in the morning, so be ready to set your alarm)!
Can I Watch the Olympics on Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV, or Chromecast?
The Olympics won’t always wait for you to be at home in front of the biggest TV possible. Luckily, you have tons of options for streaming the Olympic Games. Check out the chart below for details.
| Roku | Fire TV | Apple TV | Android TV | Chromecast | iOS | Android | Web/ browser |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hulu + Live TV | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| fuboTV | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sling TV | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Youtube TV | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
More to Watch for Olympics Fans
This article focused on the Summer Olympics, but why not watch the Winter Olympics too? They’ll be in Beijing in February 2022, which means NBC will be broadcasting both a Summer Olympics and Winter Olympics in the span of about seven months. If you like snowboarding just as much as swimming, our guide to watching the Winter Olympics without cable can give you the scoop.
My advice for what it’s worth Spend $10 on HideMyAss VPN for the month and use the BBC UK coverage. No adverts and olympics every moment of every sport available live and for catch-up.
This is bulls***. Over-the-air networks should be available with a simple HD antenna and not a cable subscription of any kind.
They are. These are just alternatives if you can’t or won’t use an antenna. They even mention that in the article.
I find, as Taylor notes, using a personal VPN (mine is PureVpn), setting a location like Vancouver, BC, and then accessing CBC.ca’s live streams and Google Casting it from my laptop to my Chromecast works quite nicely. It also avoids the “video stream not available in your region” issue you inevitably get after the ads conveniently roll. I got he guide from “VPN Sports”.