With the Olympics set to have the opening ceremony on July 23, become familiar with the broadcasting network of each country by viewing the list below. The Tokyo Olympics, including swimming, begin competition on July 24. No fans from any country will be allowed to spectate in person, meaning that television ratings could be through-the-roof.
U.S. Television
NBC Universal has a deal with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to broadcast in the U.S. from 2021- 2032, a time span that will cover 6 Games. NBC agreed to pay $7.75 billion. During the 2016 Rio Games, an average of 25.4 million people in the U.S. watched the Olympics on NBC primetime.
With Tokyo 13 hours ahead of the Eastern Time Zone, most of the live coverage will be early in the morning in the U.S. From July 24-July 30, the swimming heats will be covered at 6 am EST and finals will be covered at 9:30 pm EST. Only finals will take place on July 31, that coverage will also be at 9:30 pm. See the NBC schedule with channel details and streaming links here.
- Swimming events will air live daily on the USA Network for prelims and NBC for finals.
- All Sports can be viewed live on NBCOlympics.com in their standalone format. You’ll need access to a participating cable or internet provider.
- What’s on now? Use this schedule from NBC to see what’s on right now on each participating channel/network.
- See what time swimming starts in each time zone here.
Other sports:
- USA Network will air swimming, track and field, diving, beach volleyball, volleyball, cycling, triathlon, basketball, soccer and water polo.
- CNBC will air diving, beach volleyball, skateboarding, rowing, canoeing, archery, water polo and rugby.
- NBCSN will air soccer, softball, beach volleyball, table tennis, handball, badminton, fencing and equestrian.
- Golf Channel will air golf live.
- Peacock FREE will stream gymnastics, track & field, and lots of bonus content
- Peacock PREMIUM will air men’s basketball
- NBC will air a variety of sports, including the marquee men’s and women’s basketball gold medal games.
- The NBC SPORTS App on your smart device or streaming device, like Roku, will let you watch what’s live, what’s on replay, and tell you what’s coming up soon.
List of Country and Broadcasting Networks by Continent
Below is a list of each broadcasting network for the specific country. Included in this list were the top countries from the 2016 Rio Games medal standings.
Africa
- Kenya- KTN
- South Africa- SABC
Asia
- Azerbaijan- AzTV
- China- CCTV
- Iran- IRIB
- Japan- Japan Consortium (JC)
- South Korea- KBS, MBC, SBS
- Uzbekistan- MTRK
Europe
- Austria- ORF
- Croatia- HRT
- Czech Republic- ČT
- Denmark- DR
- France- Eurosport, France Télévision
- Germany- ARD, ZDF
- Greece- ERT
- Hungary- MTVA
- Ireland – RTÉ
- Italy- RAI
- Netherlands- NOS
- Poland- TVP
- Russia- Channel One, Match TV
- Spain- RTVE
- Sweden- Kanal 5
- Switzerland- SRG SSR
- Ukraine- Suspline
- United Kingdom- BBC, Eurosport
North America
- Canada- CBC/Radio-Canada
- Cuba- ICRT
- Jamaica- TVJ
- Mexico- Televisa, TV Azteca
- United States- NBC Universal
- United States Active Military- View Instructions here
South America
- Argentina- TVP, TyC Sports
- Brazil- Grupo Globo, BandSports
- Colombia- Caracol Televisión
Australia
- Australia- Seven Network
- New Zealand- Sky Network Television, TVNZ
so can I not watch the streams on peacock premium?
wtf is good with nbc….cut out of stream right before simone manual swimming more prelims of 4 * 100 free relay. what????
Any idea who may have the official Olympic stream where Nicole Livingstone is doing the commentary? I recall one of the European streams last time used that commentary.
I also want to know this. Anyone have an answer?
Am I the only one gritting their teeth reading “EST” when “EDT” is what is intended?
So basically, what you’re getting at, is there’s no way to watch all of the swimming events live unless you are a boomer with cable?
Hulu + Live TV
YouTube TV
Sling
All of these and more are non-cable streaming services that carry the channels you need to watch.
When I go to Hulu + Live TV and check on NBCsn it doesn’t show swimming, it shows volleyball at 9:00 tonight
Swimming is on regular NBC, not NBCSN.
Soooooo excited
NBC has exclusive Olympic rights in the US until 2032? This is a tragedy
Brisbane is 1hr ahead of Tokyo so NBC will likely try and change the swimming schedule again. I’ve also noticed some of the track and field finals like the women’s 400m hurdles is scheduled at 11.30am-noon Tokyo local time so 22.30 in EST.
Australians will protest greatly if NBC trues it again. Hate NBC.
Yeah, Aussies are no nonsense people.
Anyone know any good VPNs? Asking for a friend
ExpressVPN