How to Watch: FIS Ski Alpine World Cup
With 10 podiums from five athletes, the Land Rover U.S. Alpine Ski Team is off to its strongest start in years. Strong skiing equals strong interest, so we thought we’d spend a little time demystifying the television broadcast and streaming opportunities for you to experience the FIS Alpine World Cup this season, to the World Championships in Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy, and beyond!
The TV rights situation is a complex one.
Former women’s World Cup beat writer Gabbi Hall took the time a few years back to give fans a look at the complexity of the TV rights in alpine ski racing. Since she did such a stellar job explaining it, and much of the information still holds true today, we thought it would be a good idea to resurrect her article, 5 Things You Never Knew About World Cup TV Rights. Grab your coffee, and head over to that piece for a few to get acquainted if your attention span is up for the task.
Where can I find the full alpine TV schedule?
Not only can you expect for us to share the viewing information prior to each World Cup race on our social mediums, but you can also find it 24/7 on our website here. It’s a pretty sweet resource that includes both TV broadcast and streaming information.
Why are Austrian World Cup venue races exclusive to NBC’s Peacock TV?
To lay it out very clearly:
All races outside of Austria = Available on Olympic Channel, NBCSN, and/or NBC + Peacock
All races in Austria = Available exclusively on Peacock.
Now, let’s dive in.
Currently, ski and snowboard World Cup events in Austria are not available for broadcast in the United States on Olympic Channel, NBCSN, and NBC. Broadcast and digital distribution rights are negotiated between the event’s rights holder (Austrian Ski Federation) and media companies. We do not control the media rights to Austria races. Are there other options? Yep!
Peacock Premium offers live coverage of the entire event schedule, as well as the option to watch on-demand. Don’t want to wake up at 4 a.m. to watch the Mikaela Shiffrin crush the first run, but want to watch it later? Easy. Check it out.
Note: Peacock Premium does not have commentators, it provides only the live video feel with natural sounds (which is cool in and of itself...you can hear the sound of athletes skiing 80+mph with two planks that have razor-sharp edges) and graphics, however Olympic Channel, NBCSN, and NBC will once again be broadcasting all events outside of Austria, and will include commentary. As far as costs go for Peacock Premium, it’s actually less expensive than NBC Sports Gold’s Snow Pass...at $4.99/month it is about $10 less than the annual cost of $69 for Snow Pass. Also, you can pay by the month, only for the winter, so five months would be under $25. Lots of Austrian venue races coming up in January...why not snag Peacock Premium for a month? You can do that. Five bucks. How much did you spend on coffee this week? Just sayin’.
We've heard many individuals say they don't want to pay more for a streaming service, on top of your cable package. Think of it this way: paying for Peacock Premium (even for one month) is good for the sport for the athletes, as it states a case for more and wider coverage in the future.
All streams will be available via desktop as well as mobile, tablet, and connected television platforms. The NBC Sports, Peacock TV, and Olympic Channel app are available on the Apple App Store, Google Play, Windows Store, Roku Channel Store, Apple TV, and Amazon Fire. Comcast’s eligible Xfinity X1 and Flex customers, as well as eligible Cox Contour customers, enjoy Peacock Premium included with their service at no additional cost.
How can I get in contact with Peacock?
https://www.peacocktv.com/help/
Thank you, as always, for your support. Also—just for good measure, we'll share the broadcast/streaming schedule again, in really big, bold font. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me at megan.harrod@usskiandsnowboard.org.