NBC Universal Lays Out Programming Plans for 2026 Winter Olympics

NBC Universal Lays Out Programming Plans for 2026 Winter Olympics By Ken Kerschbaumer, Editorial Director

Wednesday, February 12, 2025 - 12:01 pm

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Next February promises to be an exciting one for NBC Sports and NBC Olympics given that they will kick off a Winter Olympics on the same weekend that they broadcast Super Bowl LX and, in addition, they will broadcast the NBA All-Star Game the following weekend.

And NBCUniversal got the jump start with a Milan Cortina Olympics promo today. Coverage begins with the Opening Ceremony from San Siro Stadium in Milan live on NBC and Peacock on Friday, Feb. 6, 2026 and NBCUniversal says it will broadcast the most hours of Winter Olympics coverage on the NBC broadcast network than has ever been done before.

Paris proved that the Olympics are back and remain an unrivaled media property, with the unique ability to captivate the nation and generate huge audiences across all demographics for 17 days and nights, says Rick Cordella, President, NBC Sports. We expect Milan Cortina to carry on that legacy. The time zone allows us to mimic our Paris programming and coverage strategy on NBC and Peacock, which was widely praised and highly consumed. Team USA is poised to have one of its strongest Winter Olympic teams in years, and America has always been fascinated with Italy, its culture, food, and scenery. Milan Cortina has all the ingredients to produce yet another unforgettable Olympics one year from now.

With Milan and Cortina, Italy, in the same time zone as Paris, France, the programming plan for the 2026 Winter Games will be similar to NBCUniversal's plans for last summer's Paris Games. Viewers can expect the best events live during the day on NBC, the entire Olympics streaming live on Peacock, an enhanced Olympics primetime show, Primetime in Milan, featuring top events, stars, and stories, comprehensive coverage across numerous cable and digital platforms, and the return of Gold Zone and Multiview on Peacock.

NBC will provide Olympic fans with at least five hours of daytime coverage every day featuring the most exciting events, including live coverage of figure skating, freestyle skiing, snowboarding, speed skating, and more. With Italy six hours ahead of the United States' Eastern Time Zone - which is identical to Paris daytime coverage will feature the most popular events live on NBC on weekend mornings and every afternoon.

Given the time difference and following live coverage throughout the day, NBC will deliver Primetime in Milan, an enhanced Olympics primetime show providing three hours of exhilarating entertainment each night with the same style and substance that made Primetime in Paris so successful. The program will take the American audience inside the Olympic day from Italy, filled with the day's great competitions, moments, stories, raw emotion, winter scenery, and the culture of the host nation for the primetime audience to share.

Peacock will be the streaming home of the 2026 Olympic Winter Games and the service will once again stream every sport and event live (including early morning alpine skiing and all 116 medal events) and will feature full-event replays; all linear programming, including the NBC broadcast network; curated video clips; virtual channels; exclusive original programming; cutting-edge technology; and more.

The uber-popular Gold Zone whip-around program and Multiview feature from the Paris Olympics will return for Milan Cortina with more details to come.

And consistent with previous Olympic Winter Games, comprehensive cable coverage will be on USA Network and CNBC. USA Network will once again be the 24/7 home of Team USA while CNBC will provide coverage on the weekends and weekdays once its business day programming concludes. Additional information about NBCUniversal's Milan Cortina programming will be announced at a later date.

Lastly, NBCU's coverage of the Milan Cortina Paralympics will take place March 6-15, 2026, with details to be released at a later date.

LINK:	https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/02/12/nbc-universal-lays-out-programm...
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