"New Era" for U.S. Ski Racing Makes It Far Easier To Watch Your Favorite Events
Big, big news for U.S. fans of alpine ski racing and other skiing sports is here.
A partnership between U.S. Ski & Snowboard, NBC, and the International Ski & Snowboard Federation (FIS) has streamlined what was once a Byzantine network of providers that forced viewers to watch racing through multiple channels.
The partnership means every Alpine World Cup and World Championship will stream live and on demand on Peacock with commentary, plus additional linear coverage on NBC and NBCSN for major events. Peacock coverage extends to U.S. freeskiing events in Colorado this winter. A Peacock Premium plan costs $12.99 a month plus taxes.
Additionally, U.S. Ski & Snowboard and FIS have launched a free channel with ads called Ski & Snowboard World Cup that will feature all events held outside the U.S. in cross-country, freeride, freeski, freestyle, Nordic combined, ski jumping, and snowboard. Every event will stream live with English commentary.
World Cup and World Championship events will also be available on demand on YouTube, including alpine, giving fans a free place to catch up on any race they missed.
Photo: Courtesy U.S. Ski & Snowboard
In summation, if your head is still spinning a bit: Every Alpine World Cup and World Championship streams live on Peacock, and a new free YouTube channel and an ad-supported channel, both called Ski & Snowboard World Cup, will carry international events in all other FIS sports.
It’s a sizable departure from how things used to work. Last year, around this time, POWDER broke down how North American viewers could watch the World Cup, doing our best to explain what was, admittedly, a head scratcher.
“Streaming options vary from country to country, with three geographic categories to keep track of: the U.S., foreign races not including those held in Austria, and Austria,” we wrote.
Sophie Goldschmidt, president and CEO of U.S. Ski & Snowboard, said in a release that fans, for years, “had to work harder than they should have to watch our athletes compete.”
“We are thrilled that the new centralized broadcast strategy we’ve worked on with FIS and the other countries removes that friction,” she added. “This is a new era.”
Superstar racer Mikaela Shiffrin said in a release that she’d been advocating for the change for years. “Now everyone can watch live or on demand, whenever works for them,” she said. “When kids can watch ski racing, they can picture themselves doing it, and that’s how ski racing grows.”
U.S. Ski & Snowboard has published a broadcast schedule on its website that includes when events will air and where you can watch them.
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