NBC announced some key details regarding the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milano-Cortina on Wednesday.
Perhaps most important among the announcements is that the Olympics will still have a cable presence despite NBC being set to spin off most of its cable networks this year. Specifically, NBC announced that both USA Network and CNBC will carry coverage of the Winter Games next year.
In the past, NBC has utilized its other cable properties like E! and Bravo to air portions of the Olympics on cable. Bravo will remain under the NBC umbrella after the spinoff, while E! will not — making its future as an Olympics destination uncertain.
However, NBC has made clear that it will fulfill all of its contractual obligations with regard to sports rights, even after the spinoff occurs.
Olympics fans will likely be excited to hear that the popular Gold Zone feed will return to Peacock in 2026. The whip-around show will air live coverage of the day’s events with an emphasis on competitions where a medal is at stake.
Just like in 2024 during the Paris Olympics, Peacock will stream all events live as they happen.
As for NBC, the broadcast network will take a similar strategy to the successful Summer Games of 2024. They will air “the best events live during the day” before showing Primetime in Milan during the evening hours; a curated broadcast that will feature “top events, stars, and stories.”
“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,” NBC Sports president Rick Cordella said in a press release. “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.”
If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, as they say.
