Watching the Olympics in 2021 was a little complicated, requiring viewers to juggle NBC Broadcasts, the company's Peacock Streaming service and a dedicated NBCOlympics.com website. Today the company announced that watching the Paris games in 2024 will be a lot easier — declaring Peacock the "streaming home" of the 2024 Paris Olympics.

"In a Summer Games first, the service will stream every sport and event, including all 329 medal events." NBC says it will also broadcast at least nine hours of daytime coverage on the network, which will then be made available for streaming on Peacock. The streaming service will also host full-event replays, curated video clips, original commentary and more.

NBC is heralding the coverage as the Olympic Games return to its "true glory, with full stadiums and the world's greatest athletes" since 2018, but the expanded programming is almost certainly a response to backlash over the network's limited coverage of the last summer Olympics. Although the network did make every event available to watch 2021, most of it could only be accessed on NBCOlympics.com, with NBC television and Peacock playing host to limited key events.

With any luck, NBC's new plans will make watching the games easier than ever. You'll have to wait about a year to find out, though: NBC and Peacock will kick off Olympic Games coverage on Friday, July 26 2024.

Ever wish your Fortnite skills could lead to Olympic glory? They can now. The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has addedFortnite to the Olympic Esports Finals lineup. A dozen players from the Fortnite Champion Series will participate in an International Shooting Sport Federation-backed sharpshooting competition on a special Fortnite Creative Island. There won't be any last-one-standing battles or building demonstrations, then, but this will give you a chance to see some of the world's best virtual sport shooters in action.

Simultaneously, the IOC has opened up ticket sales for the Olympic Esports Week, which centers on the first in-person finals of the 2023 competition series. If you can make it to Singapore between June 22nd and June 25th, it will cost you 10 SGD (about $7.50) to attend one day or 20 SGD ($15) for the three days of competition starting June 23rd. The Fortnite sport shooting matches take place June 24th. You can stream the events through both Olympics.com and the Olympics' social media channels.

The Olympic Esports Series already included nine games that roughly line up with real-world sports run by international federations. The mix includes Just Dance, Gran Turismo racing, Zwift cycling and even web chess. It's a follow-up to the Olympic Virtual Series from 2021, which covered five digital sports. The IOC sees this as part of a broader effort to foster esports and connect with the video game community.

The addition of a Fortnite island is in step with the Committee's esports goals: this is a "peaceful competition" with a physical equivalent. You still aren't about to see a digital Olympics featuring Counter-Strike 2 or League of Legends. With that said, Fortnite is clearly the most popular game to reach the Esports Series. Theoretically, that could bring in audiences who would otherwise pass in favor of conventional esports tourneys.

After a year-long delay due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, the games of the XXXII Olympiad are scheduled to begin in Tokyo this week. Despite Japan’s struggles to contain the virus and athletes testing positive inside the Olympic Village, the event is still on. The sheer amount of action happening every day through the first week of August means you’ll need to plan ahead to catch all of the events you want to see, especially if you’re on the opposite side of the world.

When do the Olympics start?

The official start to the Olympics is the opening ceremony on Friday, July 23rd at 7AM ET, but a few events will actually kick off before that. Softball and Women’s Soccer competition begins Wednesday (Tokyo time), but the first games aired Tuesday night on the east coast. Softball, Men’s Soccer and Rowing are set to take place on Thursday with Rowing, Cycling, Tennis and Women’s Water Polo scheduled after the Opening Ceremony Friday and into Saturday. This weekend is when things really get going though, with a packed slate of events from Saturday onward. The closing ceremony will air at 8PM ET on NBC on Sunday, August 8th.

How to watch

USA TODAY USPW / reuters

For those of us in the United States, NBC is the official broadcaster of the Summer Olympics and has been since 2000. The network’s current deal goes through 2032, so you won’t have to look around to find the games on new channels anytime soon. Due to the volume of events, NBC proper isn’t enough to show all of the action, so you can also find live coverage on NBCSN, USA, CNBC, Golf Channel and the Olympic Channel — cable or TV streaming subscription required. Following controversy over tape delays during previous Olympics, NBC began airing events live in 2012 despite the massive time differences. During prime time in the US, the network will show highlights from earlier in the day in addition to any live action.

At least a portion of the marquee events — including the opening/closing ceremonies, Women’s Soccer Final, Basketball, Track & Field — will air on NBC. A lot of the events that take place in the middle of the night Eastern time (which is the bulk of the action) will be shown on the other networks and NBC’s streaming service Peacock. NBC Sports announced that Peacock will be home to “major events live each morning” including Women’s and Men’s Gymnastics, Track & Field and Basketball. The streaming service will also have six themed channels alongside three highlight shows throughout the day Eastern time along with a spotlight series that focuses on the women of Team USA. Olympics coverage will be available for free on Peacock with the exception of Men’s Basketball. You’ll need a $4.99 subscription to watch those games.

If you’d rather watch from your computer, phone or tablet, NBC says “every single event” will be available through NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app. Twitch will also serve up Olympics content, but not live events. There, you’ll find interviews, highlights and, of course, competitions. The platform will also host streams and co-streams with Twitch creators during some of the primetime broadcasts.

Thomas Peter / reuters

Several services and TV providers offer tools to help you keep up with all of the action. YouTube TV, for example, allows you to select which events you’re interested in and the app will automatically record them to its cloud DVR. Here’s to watching Swimming at a normal hour and not staying up until 2AM. YouTube TV has also added a medal table for quick reference and its “Jump To” feature lets you hop around events and specific moments easily. Cable providers like Comcast (owned by NBC’s parent company) are offering Olympics hubs on their services for easy access. There’s a degree of personalization across Xfinity tiers, for example, as well as notifications about “must-see moments” and playlists of highlights.

For a full schedule, visit NBCOlympics.com to find info on all of the events you’re looking for.

Fans in the UK don’t have to contend with quite the time difference as those of us in the States, but they’ll still get to watch as much of the action as they want. The BBC is the official broadcaster in the UK and it’s promising over 350 hours of coverage through early August. BBC One and BBC Two will show live events while an additional livestream will be available on BBC iPlayer. The network will have daily highlights and recap shows in both the morning and evening with anything that airs on BBC One or Two available on-demand via iPlayer. Coverage is also available through BBC Radio 5 Live and The Olympics Daily podcast.