If you want to watch the Olympics without a cable subscription in the United States, you’re out of luck. Or, if you’re outside of the United States, you might find it hard to figure out how to watch the Olympics in the first place and what service you need to do so.
NBC owns the rights to broadcast the Olympics–and you can bet your pretty penny that they paid a significant sum to do so (over $4 million).
When you navigate to watch the Olympics online, you’ll find that you have to log in and verify your TV provider. There isn’t any option for users to access the streams without a television subscription.
So how can you access the Olympics online? Well, the first step is that you need to access another service separate from NBC that also owns the rights to stream the Olympics.
By using another service geo-restricted to another country, you can bypass restrictions on Olympics in the US or elsewhere in the world. They key here is to use CBC and the BBC– services that stream the Olympics outside of the US that don’t have the same restrictions that the NBC does when it comes to streaming the Olympics online.
How to get past Olympic Restrictions
To get around the restrictions that NBC has enforced, you need to access BBC or the CBC. The only bad news is that both of these services are geo-restricted to their respective regions, being Canada and Britain. However, with our simple trick, you’ll be able to access either service reliably and with fast speeds.
To access the Olympics online without a cable subscription, you just need to use BBC and the CBC. And to access these services, you need to make them think that you are in either Britain (BBC) or Canada for the CBC.
To do this, you need to use a virtual private network. A VPN works by sending ALL of your internet traffic through a secure virtual tunnel that encrypts your internet traffic and changes your IP address. The key here–when considering how to access the Olympics–is that a VPN changes your IP address.
When you launch a VPN, you get the ability to connect your computer to a remote server. Each remote server has a particular IP address with a real geolocation.
So when you connect to a VPN, and you pick a UK or Canadian server, suddenly your VPN gives your computer the ability to make websites think that you are actually in the UK or Canada since you have an IP that correlates accurately with that location.
Which VPN should I use to Watch the Olympics Online?
To watch the Olympics with a VPN, you need a FAST one. A lot of articles similar to this one on the internet might just suggest a SmartDNS solution to watch the Olympics, and while that might be good for limited use–it doesn’t have the power and adaptability of a VPN. Read more about the difference between SmartDNS and VPN here.
Recommended VPNs for Watching the Olympics Online:
VPN Provider |
Price Per Month |
Review Rating |
Details |
Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
$10 |
|
Visit TorGuard | |
 |
$6.95 | 
|
|
Visit PIA |
 |
$12.95 | 
|
|
Visit ExpressVPN |
TorGuard
TorGuard is one of the best VPNs to choose if you want fast access to the Olympics. They have numerous servers for the UK and Canada that work well with streaming providers like BBC and the CBC. Also, they also work with Netflix–which is a huge plus.
ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is one of the most premium services we’ve reviewed. They have great polish and consistent applications along with the speeds and performance to solidify the experience.
Alongside TorGuard, they are also one of the few VPNs that has managed to work with Netflix–which is a great indicator that they would work great with services like BBC and the CBC that let you stream the Olympics.
ExpressVPN even has a page dedicated to watching the Olympics here.
Private Internet Access
Private Internet Access is similar to TorGuard in a lot of ways. They have excellent security, and their applications all work well on multiple devices. However, they are cheaper per month at only $6.95, but they haven’t been as reliable for services like Netflix. However, they should work great for accessing the Olympics.
Since Private Internet Access is cheaper than the other two options, you could try it out and if it doesn’t work request a refund. However, if you pay with Bitcoin, keep in mind it might be just a little tricky–as we found in our review.
Olympics VPN Conclusion:
Watching the Olympics with a VPN is a good way of ensure your you can watch the Olympics without needing a cable or TV subscription.
