Before we get to the 2024 Summer Olympics in July, the athletes must qualify in their respective events. Qualifying is done differently across different sports, and many have already booked their spots in Paris, but for others, the most important competition of their lives is about to begin.
In the United States, Olympic qualifying for four major sports are all on the horizon:
US Olympic Swimming Trials: June 15-23
US Olympic Diving Trials: June 17-23
US Olympic Track and Field Trials: June 21-30
US Olympic Gymnastics Trials: June 27-30
Over 200 hours of live coverage of all of these events will be spread across NBC, CNBC, USA Network and Peacock. But if you don’t have cable, we’ve found a handful of different ways you can watch a live stream of the 2024 US Olympic Trials for swimming, diving, track and field and gymnastics.
The Fubo “Pro” package gives you access to a live stream of 180-plus live TV channels, including NBC (live in most markets), CNBC and USA Network. Fubo costs $80 per month, but it comes with a seven-day trial if there’s a certain sport or certain stretch of events that you want to watch for free.
Moreover, you can do the same thing through YouTube TV (“Base Plan”) or DirecTV Stream (“Entertainment” plan or above), which both include NBC (live in most markets), CNBC and USA Network, and both come with five-day trials.
For the non-math majors out there, that gives you 17 days of free live TV if you spread out all three of those trials. The Olympic trials for these four sports, meanwhile, will last a total of 16 days.
While the aforementioned option gives you a way to watch all of the televised coverage for free, Peacock is the way to go if you want the most complete coverage of the Olympic trials. Not only will Peacock have a simulcast of everything that’s on TV, but it will also have coverage of most of the prelims, qualifying heats and other events that don’t make their way to TV.
All you need to watch all of that is the Peacock “Premium” plan. It doesn’t come with a free trial, but you can get it for just $6 per month or a limited-team deal of $20 for a year. Considering how much Olympics coverage will be on Peacock in July and August, it may make the most sense to just go with the discounted yearly option right now.
Sling TV has some drawbacks: It doesn’t come with a free trial, it’s not as cheap as Peacock, and it only has NBC live in a few markets.
But if you can get past those things, Sling is the way to go if you want the cheapest streaming service that has the NBC networks and other live-TV channels. The “Sling Blue” channel package plus the “News Extra” add-on will get you NBC (live in select markets), CNBC and USA Network, and it costs just $46 per month. That’s already cheaper than any other live-TV streaming service with those channels, but it’s also on sale for $36 for your first month.
Ultimately, if you just want to watch the Olympic trials and you don’t have any of the free-trial options available, then Peacock is probably the way to go. But if you want to watch the trials and then switch around to other live-TV, then Sling is a great choice.
All of the streaming services we just mentioned are US-only, but a virtual private network (VPN) can get you around that issue. A VPN hides your IP address/location and connects you to a digital server in the US, allowing you to access content as if you were physically located there.
NordVPN is our recommendation. It’s safe, fast, has nearly 2,000 servers in the US alone and comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee. However, if you want to shop around, we’ve put together lists of the best VPN services and the best VPN deals that you can peruse for some alternatives.
Some of the best shots in Grok Imagine’s AI-made Odyssey don’t contain actors. Ancient landscapes stretch into the distance. Close-ups of grimy hands suggest people who have touched something rougher than a keyboard. For a few seconds, the illusion holds.
https://twitter.com/imagine/status/2113712964419063911
YouTube videos could soon look better without eating quite so much data, right? Thankfully, the platform plans to introduce a new video format called AV2 on its web player in early 2027, promising more efficient streaming and potentially fewer playback hiccups on slower internet connections. The big headline is a roughly 30% improvement in compression efficiency over AV1, YouTube's existing video format. That doesn't guarantee every video will use 30% less data, but it could make streaming a little easier on both internet connections and data allowances.
What is AV2, and why should viewers care?
YouTube is changing how its Home page works, giving viewers more control over what shows up there and making some of the app’s most-used sections easier to reach. Custom Feeds are now replacing the existing topic chips for eligible users, while YouTube is also testing a redesigned top bar on mobile that moves Subscriptions closer to the Home feed.
YouTube first started experimenting with Custom Feeds earlier this year, letting you type out what you wanted to watch and turning that request into its own stream of recommendations. Now, the feature is starting to look less like a side experiment and more like something YouTube actually wants people to use as part of their everyday Home page.