Milano-Cortina 2026 Broadcasters discussion

[SportLightning]

I'm starting discussion on broadcasters as we are under a year from today to these Olympic Winter Games.

NBCUniversal had just revealed their logo for its coverage. It's a snowflake instead of the mountains which they did in the last 6 editions since 2002. This is the first time they will not use the mountains in their logo. 

Edited February 13, 2025 by Sir Rols

[Durban Sandshark]

And here's my first contribution to this new Olympic media thread with that new NBC 2026 snowflake logo with the Milan-Cortina 2026 NBC promo, showcasing Team USA athletes in various sports interspersed with Milan's famed attractions like the Galleria, the Milan Cathedral, a fashion runway, and La Scala, that came right after the Super Bowl, coming very much 20 years since Torino. Next February will be a very interesting and jam-packed time for NBC Sports with not just this but also broadcasting Super Bowl LX and the return of the NBA On NBC in 24 years with NBC also showcasing the 2026 NBA All-Star Weekend in Los Angeles/Inglewood's brand new Intuit Dome, the home of Los Angeles' real, true, and only NBA team the Los Angeles Clippers and the site of the 2028 Olympic men's and women's basketball competition. We'll head into this more as we go along. But also these...

NBCUNIVERAL: NBC AND PEACOCK LEAD NBC UNIVERSAL'S MILAN-CORTINA 2026 WINTER OLYMPICS COVERAGE  

Structure will be organized very much like with Paris 2024, since both cities share the same time zone in Europe, as Team USA puts forth one of its strongest Winter Olympic Teams ever. "Peacock will serve up every sport live — 116 medal events, while offering a suite of interactive features, full event replays and curated video clips. “Gold Zone,” a so-called “whip-around” show that takes viewers to live moments of interest as they happen and which debuted for the Paris Games, will return. USA Network, living up to its name once again during Olympic time, will serve as a home to all Team USA events, while CNBC will provide coverage on the weekends and weekdays once its business day programming concludes." NBC on the broadcasting side will present at least 5 coverage hours everyday with primetime, just like with Paris 2024, "curates" a special nighttime segment that offers highlights, analysis and features around the athletes and their activity as well as tying to celebrity and cultural angles:

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/nbc-2026-milan-winter-olympics-tv-sports-paris-1236304942/

 

[Durban Sandshark]

Many Milan-Cortina 2026 OBS worldwide rights broadcasters descended to Milan-Cortina February 19-21 for the world broadcasters meeting with less than a year to go weeks ago:

https://www.obs.tv/news/823

https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/world-broadcasters-meet-with-less-than-a-year-to-go-until-milano-cortina-2026

[Durban Sandshark]

Effective starting with the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics, TelevisaUniversal acquires the exclusive media rights on free-to air, pay television, and digital platforms and non-exclusive radio rights in Mexico for every edition of the Olympic Games until 2032, including the right to sub-license media rights within Mexico in early February. This "includes a commitment to at least 200 hours of free-to-air coverage of the Olympic Games, as well as free-to-air coverage of the Olympic Winter Games and Youth Olympic Games. The free-to-air broadcast will be complemented with pay TV coverage, as well as simulcast coverage on ViX, the company’s streaming platform." It beat out Carlos Slim's America Movil, the home of Claro Sports, in the Mexican rights in this cycle but not all non-Brazil Latin American Spanish language rights. Could very well see TUDN employ multiple Olympic-specific TV channels like SKY New Zealand, Stan, SuperSport, and SporTV with documentaries, some of which could be about Mexican/Latin American Winter Olympians. Could there be richer coverage and in-depth analysis there and exposure of the Winter Olympics henceforth to the Mexican audience. Multiple streams of course will be on Vix live and on-demand as Televisa's Canal 5 and Canal 9 handling the terrestrial side, using the same TV programming structure like with Paris 2024 on both channels (Canal 9 at 8:00-15:00 and Canal 5 at 6:00-15:00 Mexican/USA/Canada CT):

https://www.olympics.com/ioc/news/ioc-awards-televisaunivision-exclusive-media-rights-in-mexico-through-to-2032

So there is still a possibility for Claro Sports, TV Azteca, and Grupo Formula to carry at least some Olympics broadcasting rights shares during this span, if Televisa allows. Hope so, especially with Los Angeles 2028 looming as that city will definitely attract massive Mexican interest, like viewers and advertising, with its connective ties to Mexico like LA's own obvious massive Mexican community. Titan Sports' Sergio Spinoza brings up concern for diminished media and information diversity and coverage perspectives when it comes to Mexican Olympic broadcasting, and Televisa possibly repeating the same traditional presentation instead of presenting diverse high-quality Olympic journalism and in-depth analysis and coverage (maybe more reserved for TUDN and Vix than Televisa's TV channels). Concerns arise also that the bidding, while public tender, wasn't transparent and thus whether the bidding competition was genuine:   

https://titansports.mx/monopolio-olimpico-televisa-se-aduena-de-los-juegos-hasta-2032-🚨/

[Durban Sandshark]

And we got recent Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics broadcast media coverage news coming from Sweden that was hot off the heels of the successful Paris 2024 Summer Olympics for that nation with Armand "Mondo" Duplantis, Sarah Sjostrom, and the beach volleyball duo of Jonatan Hellvig and David Ahman all winning gold. Kanal 5/Eurosport Sverige/HBO Max and SVT were there with the latter just handling the nighttime highlights show corresponding to Warner Bros. Discovery Sweden's entities in the former.

TV4 makes its return to Swedish Olympic TV broadcasting for the first time since Athens 2024 when it got involved with soccer and basketball, back when it shared the coverage with public broadcaster SVT as a junior partner. Now this free-to-air partnership returns when SVT, under a pan-European broadcasting licensing deal with Warner Bros. Discovery and the EBU in this Olympic cycle through 2032 after TV4 purchased some terrestrial rights from SVT. Discovery's Eurosport/HBO Max will continue to maintain pay-TV and streaming rights, allowing Swedish viewers to continue picking and choosing. 

From the looks of this, this will be more of a distribution and sharing of Olympic events between TV4, known for its immense soccer and ice hockey coverage, and SVT. Not unlike what we see out of Scandinavian nations during recent Summer and Winter Olympics with DR and TV2 in Denmark, TV Norge and NRK in Norway, and YLE's TV2 and Kanal 5 in Finland (Iceland's RUV always maintained the Icelandic Olympic rights except when Stod 2 Sports got involved even earlier). On the terrestrial side. Both will showcase major Winter Olympic sports and those that will have broad Swedish TV audience interest--and particular interest like when there's a Swedish Olympian competing. Rumor has it that SVT, which I suspect will handle both ceremonies, is interested in showing Nordic cross country skiing and biathlon and possibly hand ice hockey over to TV4. Details will be forthcoming:

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/a/o3K5WB/os-i-tv-svt-och-tv4-delar-pa-rattigheten-fran-2026-till-2032

https://omoss.svt.se/arkiv/nyhetsarkiv/2024-08-22-svt-sander-olympiska-spelen-tillsammans-med-tv4.html

Actually, TV4, on its press release from September and updated in November, announced that TV4 and TV4 Play will air ice hockey (sharing with SVT), biathlon, freestyle skiing, women's curling, snowboarding, luge, bobsledding, and the debut of ski mountaineering. SVT, along with sharing ice hockey, will show alpine skiing, figure skating, short track, skeleton, men's and mixed curling, ski jumping, speed skating, mogul slope, cross country skiing, and Nordic combined skiing and also on SVT's streaming service. My guess is the men's hockey, with its Swedish NHL stars involved, will appear on TV4 as the non-Sweden women's matches head over to SVT. Could be a mix with all of Sweden's men's and women's games appearing on SVT and the rest on TV4. But we'll know the exact distribution between the two Swedish Olympic broadcasters when the Milan-Cortina 2026 ice hockey schedule gets released in the fall--and both will share both men's and women's ice hockey games:      

https://press.tv4.se/post/har-ar-sporterna-tv4-sander-fran-vinter-os-i-milano-cortina

A sneak preview of what the Milan-Cortina 2026 CBC Sports presentation animated graphics, like the intros, will look like in this teaser promo from the 1-year mark. Colors are more purple, navy, royal blue, violet, yellow, and white as opposed to light blue and white in the last time the CBC was over in Italy two decades ago 

 

[BigVic]

Nine Entertainment here in Australia is going to have a massive Q1 2026 with the Australian Open into the Winter Olympics and the Australian F1 Grand Prix (if 9 gets the rights to these) then the start of the 2026 NRL Season happening between January-March next year. Their top-rating reality show MAFS will see them dominate the start of the 2026 Ratings Season) 

[BigVic]

On 2/13/2025 at 8:41 AM, SportLightning said:

I'm starting discussion on broadcasters as we are under a year from today to these Olympic Winter Games.

NBCUniversal had just revealed their logo for its coverage. It's a snowflake instead of the mountains which they did in the last 6 editions since 2002. This is the first time they will not use the mountains in their logo. 

Beijing 2022 vibes with the snowflake theme for NBC's Olympic coverage which is a departure from their mountain theme for Winter Games broadcasted on the network 

[Durban Sandshark]

NFL REDZONE'S "INCOMPARABLE" SCOTT HANSON RETURNS TO HOST PEACOCK'S MILAN-CORTINA 2026 WINTER OLYMPICS GOLD ZONE WHIPAROUND COVERAGE SHOW

(while still negotiating his very likely staying on at NFL RedZone)  There's more details here (with photo of him at the NFL Honors) and here 

An excellent conversation Sports Video Group has in its video on how OBS, NRK, Warner Bros. Discovery/Eurosport, and CTO all getting ready for the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics at the SVG Europe’s Winter Sports Forum on March 13 in Oslo, Norway and was moderated by George Bevir, SVG Europe’s Editorial Director: 

https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/05/01/getting-set-for-the-milano-cortina-2026-winter-olympics/

Our first host Italian news contribution here: Allianz, an official 2026 Olympic partner, sponsors 6 Italian Allianz Ambassadors--Sara Conti & Niccolò Macii (figure skating), Nikolaj Memola (figure skating), Giuseppe Romele (paralympic Nordic skiing), Martina Valcepina (short track, multiple Olympic medalist), and Martina Vozza (paralympic alpine skiing)  for next winter's Olympics and Paralympics paired along with 6 Italian Winter Olympic and Paralympic icons--Paul De Church, Barbara Fusar Poli, Christian Ghedina, Maurizio Margaglio, Francesca Porcellato, and Christian Zorzi "in a symbolic relay of values and experiences between past and future." The above 6 will be involved in a multiplatform docuseries project broadcast on RAI 2, Rai Sport and RaiPlay, created in collaboration with Dentsu Sports, YAM112003, and Rai Pubblicità. Title is Dreaming of Milan Cortina 2026: On the shoulders of Giants. This docuseries will be segmented series under 5 episodes of 30 minutes with 1 special episode “Best Of” of 60 minutes, and 1 episode dedicated to the very young members of Team G in paralympic skiing. Paolo De Chiesa will be the narrator. The format also includes the production of 20 1-minute clips, to tell the athletes' preparation in brief. No word yet on when it'll premiere. But I expect sometime by winter 2025-26:

https://www.milanosportiva.com/allianz-milano-cortina-2026-sulle-spalle-dei-giganti/

Also, RAI aired a live one-year countdown special on RAI 3 February 6 at 4:25pm under the TGR banner called Milan-Cortina: The Great Adventure with 

Quote

A live journey through three regions for a unique event: from Milan to Cortina, from Anterselva to Val di Fiemme, the protagonists of the Special are the cities, the mountains, the volunteers, and the athletes, starting with the champion Federica Brignone and her emotions. 
And then, the official countdown from Piazza Duomo in Milan, where a clock will mark the days remaining until the lighting of the Olympic brazier.

https://www.rai.it/ufficiostampa/assets/template/us-articolo.html?ssiPath=/articoli/2025/02/Milano--Cortina-La-grande-avventura-8fa0f2fc-71ca-42ba-a101-12222f22020f-ssi.html

He has helped cover 20 Olympics in total for Italian public broadcaster RAI: 9 summer in track and field/athletics and 11 winter in cross country skiing over the decades. Now Milan-Cortina 2026 will serve as Franco Bragagna's final one before retiring. Likely once again in cross-country skiing, where the Italians are usually a powerhouse in, often competing against the Norwegians. But before that, Bragagna visited with high school students back in March to discuss the magic of the Olympics and also spoke in a separate discussion with Italian coaches and broadcasters:   

https://www.informatorevigevanese.it/sport/2025/02/14/news/verso-le-olimpiadi-di-milano-cortina-2026-il-13-marzo-incontro-organizzato-dal-pool-vigevano-sport-con-il-telecronista-rai-franco-bragagna-562806/

Skiing legend Lindsey Vonn participates for her own on-set b-roll NBC 2026 Winter Olympics promo video shoot in Universal City, California. Filming for 12 hours:

https://unofficialnetworks.com/2025/05/22/lindsey-vonn-on-nbc-set-for-2026-olympics-promo-shoot/

She's part of the dozens of Team USA Olympic and Paralympic hopefuls who are doing these shoots made to resemble Italian Alps and conduct interviews. All celebrating Italy:

https://www.wsav.com/news/nbc-gears-up-for-the-2026-winter-olympics/

On 5/17/2025 at 2:26 AM, BigVic said:

Nine Entertainment here in Australia is going to have a massive Q1 2026 with the Australian Open into the Winter Olympics and the Australian F1 Grand Prix (if 9 gets the rights to these) then the start of the 2026 NRL Season happening between January-March next year. Their top-rating reality show MAFS will see them dominate the start of the 2026 Ratings Season) 

Man, that's going to be "a massive Q1 2026" for Nine next year with those events going on and being televised by Aussie standards. Certainly helps that Australia (and New Zealand) now has a very solid Winter Olympics pedigree so that nowdays assures them coming out the Winter Olympics with at least medals, including gold ones, for both nations. Although still relatively marginal in terms of mass national Australian/Kiwi interest, but rapidly growing, compared to the aforementioned sports events. I can definitely see the Nine Network dominating the Australian TV ratings then.

Certainly it's similar to what we Americans got here with NBC during its Q1, particularly our February TV "sweeps", with the Winter Olympics as the centerpoint. Actually it doesn't even compare. But actually of course we do it MUCH bigger and it'll be historic in its strong 2-week+ live sports programming slate that'll rake in billions in ad sales. NBC, including its massive multiplatform Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage, also got Super Bowl LX, held at Santa Clara's Levi's Stadium, the home of the San Francisco 49ERS, on February 8 (two days after the Opening Ceremony) and the return of the NBA On NBC after 23 years starting at the very season when the Winter Olympics are going on. With the NBA, NBC has the rights to the NBA All-Star Weekend, held inside the Los Angeles Clippers' new Intuit Dome home at this time, it inherited from TNT/Turner Sports, except for the All-Star Celebrity Game that ESPN still holds. Not to mention NBC will unquestionably lean in heavily on its 100th birth year:

https://frontofficesports.com/super-bowl-nba-olympics-drive-nbc-toward-billion-dollar-february/

https://variety.com/2025/tv/news/nbcuniversal-winter-olympics-nba-super-bowl-100-anniversary-tv-upfront-1236265828/

https://qz.com/nbc-2026-advertisers-upfronts-super-bowl-olympics-1851770740

Plans are way well underfoot to bundle and optimize the 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics and Super Bowl LX, along with NBA All-Star Weekend in capitalizing with advertising sales packages for these marquee sports events through its leverage, warning of missing out. Not for the first time NBC did this with the first two regarding commercials. NBC will charge $7 million for Super Bowl LX ad space alone:

https://awfulannouncing.com/nbc/bundle-super-bowl-olympics-ad-inventory.html

https://awfulannouncing.com/nbc/super-bowl-lead-in-nba.html

https://frontofficesports.com/can-nbc-capitalize-on-super-bowl-olympics-nba-trio-in-2026/

Nelson Monfort and Philippe Candeloro may not actually be done with France Televisions' figure skating coverage after all following Dancing With The Stars. There's a serious possibility the duo will be back together for Milan-Cortina next year as they talk with RMC's Les Grandes Gueules (The Big Mouths) hosts. Monfort was impressed that Candeloro followed him out the door even when he didn't ask Candeloro to:

https://rmc.bfmtv.com/actualites/people-culture/nelson-monfort-apres-danse-avec-les-stars-objectif-jo-d-hiver-2026-avec-philippe-candeloro_AV-202502060571.html

[Durban Sandshark]

The OBS officially launches and now welcomes its Milan-Cortina 2026 student broadcast training applications since April 28--835 submissions from local students alone so far:

https://www.thenewsmarket.com/news/obs-opens-applications-for-broadcast-training-programme-to-students-ahead-of-milano-cortina-2026/s/f8022794-ddbb-4d60-8443-c245882403ba

https://www.insidethegames.biz/articles/1153574/obs-milano-cortina-broadcasters-olympic

 

[BigVic]

https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2025/06/03/nine-locks-in-exclusive-rights-to-2026-milano-cortina-paralympics/

Nine Entertainment, Australia's Olympic Network as secured the rights to the 2026 Winter Paralympics. It's the 2nd time Nine has aired the Paralympics and their first Winter Paralympics they'll air across their platforms 

[Durban Sandshark]

On 6/3/2025 at 9:38 AM, BigVic said:

https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2025/06/03/nine-locks-in-exclusive-rights-to-2026-milano-cortina-paralympics/

Nine Entertainment, Australia's Olympic Network as secured the rights to the 2026 Winter Paralympics. It's the 2nd time Nine has aired the Paralympics and their first Winter Paralympics they'll air across their platforms 

To this point, Nine very much confirms that the same broadcasting/online/print structure it employed for Paris will very much be utilized for Milan-Cortina 2026 in both

Quote

Coverage of the Paralympics (and the Olympics) next year will be disseminated across the commercial free-to-air linear Channel 9 network, entertainment channel 9Gem, and on the 9Now video-on-demand service.

Additionally, Stan Sport, the prominent sports-focused OTT service also run by Nine, will provide coverage of the games, as will a range of Nine’s digital and social media platforms. Concurrently, Nine’s suite of talk radio stations (2GB, 3AW, 4BC, 6PR) and print and digital publications (Sydney Morning Herald, The Age, Australian Financial Review, WA Today, Brisbane Times, and The Sun Herald) will also provide Milano Cortina 2026 coverage.

We could also expect that the ABC Radio stations in cities that aren't part of the Nine Radio Network like Adelaide, Canberra, Darwin, and Hobart get involved again under a sublicensing deal:

https://www.sportcal.com/news/nine-consolidates-milano-cortina-26-coverage-with-paralympic-rights-pickup/

Another article centering on the OBS student applications from Sports Video Group:

https://www.svgeurope.org/blog/headlines/obs-opens-student-applications-for-its-broadcast-training-programme-ahead-of-milano-cortina-2026/

More OBS applications and initiatives are also in store to fill out to encourage and train more female camera operators to get involved in Milan-Cortina called Framing The Future. Applications are available now!

Quote

The Framing the Future training programme is scheduled to take place in Milan and will consist of three days of theory and practical sessions. Applicants can choose to attend either from 16 to 18 June or from 19 to 21 June 2025. Each participant will attend training sessions spanning three days of theory and practical sessions.

The training curriculum will cover essential aspects of camera operation, including audio, framing and focus. The programme is open to Italian residents who are recent graduates or early-career professionals with prior broadcast experience.

https://www.ibc.org/people-purpose/news/olympic-broadcasting-services-launches-training-initiative-for-female-camera-operators/21933

https://www.tvbeurope.com/live-production/olympic-broadcasting-services-opens-training-programme-for-female-camera-operators

[BigVic]

Coverage for the Paralympics were minimal on Channel 7 with just a highlights package. NEC will be the first broadcaster to take the Winter Paralympics seriously 

[Durban Sandshark]

Betsy Riley, a winner of 8 Sports Emmys, was named NBC Olympics Senior Vice President Coordinating Producer. Her responsibility includes overseeing the NBC Olympics Primetime show, likely be called Primetime In Milan and answer and report to Molly Solomon. She already is a known figure to NBC Olympics with 9 Olympics, both winter and summer, under her deep experience since 2002. Riley "comes home" after working at Amazon Prime Video involved with launching NFL's Thursday Night Football and the NWSL broadcasts and is regarded for her leadership, innovation, and creativity: 

https://www.nbcsports.com/pressbox/press-releases/betsy-riley-named-senior-vice-president-coordinating-producer-nbc-olympics

RAI will transmit at least 250 hours of its planned Milan-Cortina 2026 through Italy and San Marino as the exclusive free-to-air Italian Winter Olympics broadcaster on RAI2. Naturally, it'll primarily focus on Team Italia and the popular Winter Olympic sports:

https://www.sportintv.eu/2023/01/16/rai-sport-trasmettera-250-ore-per-le-olimpiadi-di-milano-cortina-2026/

RAI, the Italian host broadcaster for Milan-Cortina 2026, has given so much priority towards the upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics in February that it has forced the beloved annual Sanremo Musical Festival, usually hosted in late February and is bigtime in the Italian entertainment and recording industry, postponed to February 28 from February 24. Attributed by RAI's Milan-related ad revenue it amassed would get diluted had Sanremo not get moved:

https://www.fanpage.it/spettacolo/eventi/il-festival-di-sanremo-2026-slitta-la-rai-manda-prima-le-olimpiadi-invernali-le-nuove-date-e-i-motivi/

https://www.repubblica.it/spettacoli/tv-radio/2025/06/06/news/rai_la_sfida_tra_sanremo_e_le_olimpiadi_milano-cortina_e_il_festival_potrebbe_slittare-424652511/#:~:text=Si parte però da un,24 a sabato 28 febbraio.

Exactly one year before the Milan-Cortina 2026 Opening Ceremony's start at San Siro Stadium, RAI's news program TGF aired a live news special one-year countdown special on RAI3 called TGR Special: “Milan-Cortina - the great adventure” that was broadcast at 4.15 pm on February, Thursday 6. It's a report special going through the three hosting and spread-out regions for this unique event with reporters on the scene: from Milan to Cortina, from Anterselva to Val di Fiemme, the protagonists are the cities, the mountains, the volunteers, and the athletes, starting with the champion skiier Federica Brignone and her thoughts on the upcoming five-ring multisport event. Finalizing with the official countdown from Piazza Duomo in Milan, where a clock will mark the days remaining until the lighting of the Olympic cauldron:

https://www.rainews.it/tgr/trento/articoli/2025/02/diretta-speciale-tgr---un-anno-alle-olimpiadi-invernali-di-milano-cortina--783ddea1-c873-4d29-856b-3c30a2b408d6.html

France Televisions' 8-second promo for its coverage of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics coming right at the 1-year mark, speaking of which. There will be more forthcoming, we know: 

https://www.facebook.com/francetele/videos/bande-annonce-jeux-olympiques-dhiver-2026/613793068061383/

[Durban Sandshark]

Certainly we can expect the OBS and rights broadcasters worldwide like NBC will reprise using those cinematic cameras like what happened with Paris 2024. We're already seeing this technology being used for sports recently like with Sportsnet's coverage of the Stanley Cup Playoffs and ABC's 2025 NBA Finals presentation. Not yet with a Super Bowl as far as we know. We could see them used for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. Converting video footage on cameras to more of a film-like visual is already a practice for multiple years now. But never done live in realtime until now.   

Also, will the CBC reprise the Torino 2006 Winter Olympics music for Milan-Cortina 20 years later? Not known yet what its plans fully are, including presentation, save for the (like purple) colors and mountains. Perhaps in Toronto, musicians would be recruited to conduct the Milan-Cortina CBC theme with specific music for it. Maybe more distinctly northern Italian. Here's the CBC Torino 2026 theme and intro just to remind ourselves:

China Media Group officially signs a Memorandum of Understanding cooperation agreement with the Fondazione Milano-Cortina 2026 as a rights broadcasting holder. In this agreement, 

Quote

the two sides agreed to expand practical collaboration in news coverage, program production, promotional campaigns, event organization, and personnel exchanges. The goal is to actively promote the Olympic values embodied in the 2026 Winter Games and foster deeper mutual understanding and long-standing friendship between the Chinese and Italian peoples.

As a rights-holding broadcaster for the Games, CMG will collaborate closely with the Italian National Olympic Committee and the Fondazione Milano Cortina 2026 to integrate cutting-edge technologies such as AI and 8K ultra-high-definition broadcasting into live coverage and signal production. These innovations aim to fully capture athletes' remarkable performances while highlighting Italy's breathtaking landscapes – offering global audiences the unique charm of the fusion of technology and sports and delivering a spectacular, unforgettable Olympic experience.

The two sides also see the 2026 Winter Games and the 55th anniversary of China–Italy diplomatic relations as an opportunity to deepen exchanges across sports, culture, film, and television. The shared goal is to enhance mutual understanding between the two peoples and further advance the China–Italy comprehensive strategic partnership through cultural and civilizational dialogue.

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-06-23/CMG-signs-cooperation-agreement-with-Fondazione-Milano-Cortina-2026-1ErrTnY5I2s/p.html

I'll delve into the following more very soon. But I would expect an expansion of the Telemundo's US-Spanish 2026 Winter Olympics coverage will involve a new, planned sports network coming that was unveiled this May.

[Durban Sandshark]

As the Nine Network, aka Channel 9, revs up for the hopes of the Winter Olympics equivalent of what it enjoyed with Paris 2024 under that new benchmark last summer with Milan-Cortina 2026 in February and leading to Brisbane in 2032, it reveals new info on its Milan-Cortina 2026 multiplatform coverage plans for Aussies down under like announcing Australian Winter Olympic gold medalists Torah Bright, Steven Bradbury, and Lydia Lassila coming as analysts/experts and including former Aussie Olympians like mogul skier Britt Cox, snowboarder Steph Prem and alpine skier Jono Brauer will also providing their expertise through these Winter Games, with the commentary line-up also including David Culbert (snowboard/alpine skiing), Sami Kennedy Sim (alpine skiing), Mitch Tomlinson (halfpipe, big air & slopestyle), and Matt Hill (downhill/slalom).  Nine will also be based in Livigno, the alpine village, and back in its North Sydney studios, utilizing and "showcasing" that innovative "augmented reality technology that was used for Paris 2024, allowing brands integration and a world class viewer experience." 

Nine aims for a record Winter Olympics ad partnership cross-platform commercial package bonanza and high viewership and data records. Hey, Australia's got a Winter Olympics pedigree with bright prospects ready to bring more medals with its 50+ delegation expected in Milan-Cortina! Type of coverage Nine does is it will...

Quote

provide an unrivalled 24/7 connected content ecosystem spanning all facets of Nine’s suite of assets. It will broadcast more than 2600 hours of Winter Olympics across the Network, 9Now and Stan Sport, alongside comprehensive coverage through Nine’s audio assets. Nine’s publishing assets, spanning its mastheads and digital sites nine.com.au, WWOS.com.au and Pedestrian. TV, will ensure viewers can extend their Games experience.

https://www.bandt.com.au/no-other-event-like-it-nine-unveils-total-tv-audio-publishing-play-for-milano-cortina-2026/

[Durban Sandshark]

Fabian Hambuchen and Eurosport Deutschland continue their fun and successful Olympic TV partnership with a contract extending onward to Los Angeles 2028, maintaining his expertise, storytelling, passion, and fun/silly stuff. He'll still be the curious and understanding journalist to athletes and officials during this. We can certainly expect an entertaining continuation with the Milan-Cortina 2026 versions of being at the Team D/Deutschland Haus conducting interviews, his expert analysis on a Winter Olympic sport, the Hambuchen & Friends podcast series, and the cult fan favorite Hambuchen Challenge:

https://presse.wbd-deutschland.de/post/fortsetzung-einer-erfolgsgeschichte-warner-bros-discovery-und-fa

The CBC/SRC's Milan-Cortina 2026 interactive, electronic, and extensive ad/corporate partnership press kits for its upcoming 360-degree multiplatform and integrated coverage are now available online. We previously had the Tokyo, Beijing, and Paris version.  Apparently doing this since 2014. First URL is the English with the bottom one is the French. Sobey's, RBC, Petro-Canada, Toyota, and Tanguay can be involved again as brands:

https://cbcolympicpartnerships.ca/

https://radiocanadapartenariatsolympiques.ca/

Behind the scenes as we join with Team USA's Winter Olympians and Paralympians like Red Gerard, Mikaela Shiffrin, Malik Jones, Hilary Knight, Lindsay Vonn, Alex Ferreira, Ela Melanin, Oksana Masters, and Alanna Myers Taylor, as they discuss what it means to represent the USA on the Olympic and Paralympic stage, at the Universal shoot for Milan-Cortina 2026. This comes as part of the fourth episode of Chasing Gold: Milan Cortina 2026. All for NBC's Milan-Cortina 2026 promotional material. Would like for other major Olympic rights broadcasters emulate something like this:

 

[Durban Sandshark]

On the ZDF side of things for Germany, Petra Bindl confirms on her Instagram page that she'll handle the figure skating commentary for ZDF in Milan-Cortina come February 2026:

https://www.instagram.com/p/DMGa_ThobPz/

Also in Germany and ZDF, HelliVentures Filmproduktions once again becomes a ZDF client for developing and producing its wintersport trailers and intros for the 2025-26 season including the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games. Idea and concept of the program trailers are evolving from the sport design Orange Heat that the company developed in 2023 since extended for Orange Heat 2.0:

https://www.helliventures.com/en/news/zdf-winter-sport-trailer-25-bts/

It's not yet finalized but there's still a possibility that Philippe Candeloro could reteam up with longtime France TV figure skating co-host Nelson Monfort, as Candeloro tells Europe 1's Jean-Pierre Foucault on his Jean-Pierre Foucault et vous radio show. They may not end up doing it on France TV but could openly and "possibly" look at other avenues on TV or on radio with some commentary ideas on the sleeves:

https://www.europe1.fr/sport/on-a-quelques-pistes-pour-commenter-du-patinage-pour-les-prochains-jo-dhiver-annonce-philippe-candeloro-764434

I haven't even touched much on, or even barely got started with, Radio-Canada's Paris 2024 coverage on the Paris 2024 version of this thread but will very soon there. But I can inform you, somewhat belatedly, that SRC has announced its Radio-Canada French-Canadian Milan-Cortina 2026 programming coverage hosts for both TV and online at the one-year mark: Anchors Jean-Patrick Balleux and Martin Labrosse will take turns presenting the competitions live during the day; France Beaudoin will host the evening program, which will bring back to the day's highlights with guests, likely former French-Canadian Olympians. Geneviève Tardif will take over at the end of the evening. Olympic medalists Jacinthe Taillon and  Roseline Filion will be at the competition venues to bring us live coverage of the Olympic Games from Italy alongside the athletes and their families. Guillaume Dumas will host the hockey games, including those featuring the women's and NHL player-based national hockey teams: 

https://presse.radio-canada.ca/television/13724/radio-canada-devoile-les-animateurs-qui-presenteront-les-jeux-olympiques-d-hiver-de-milano-cortina-2026/

Nine's Milan-Cortina 2026 advertisement sales pitch is on starting at the Sydney Machine Room a couple of weeks ago at a luncheon to advertisers, media, buyers, and clients co-hosted by Andrew Cann (Director of Sales – Olympics and Paralympics) and Anne Gruber (Director of Content Partnerships – Sport, Olympic and Paralympic Games) as they publicly presented Nine Network's comprehensive multiplatform coverage plans. Paris 2024 saw significant partnership gains and hopes to successfully reach the desired 18-39 demographic with hopes of extreme sports success for Australia could be the ticket. 

Nine will be based in the thick of the action in the alpine village of Livigno, which will be a winter sporting wonderland of moguls, snowboard courses, and aerial ski jumps and was used in its pitch to the room on Northern Italy's beautiful location. There will also be a state-of-the-art set in Nine’s North Sydney studio that will again showcase cutting edge augmented reality technology that was used for Paris 2024, allowing brands integration and a world class viewer experience for Aussies. Nine is promising more than 2600 hours of the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics across the 9Network, 9Now and Stan Sport, along with coverage through Nine’s audio and publishing assets (inclusive of its mastheads and digital sites nine.com.au, WWOS.com.au and Pedestrian.TV). Just these Winter Olympics will present four premium partner packages and multiple smaller sponsor packages

Nine’s Paralympic Winter Games coverage will run from March 6 – 15 across the 9Network, 9Now and Stan Sport, as well as again utilizing Nine’s audio and publishing assets. Milano Cortina 2026 will mark the 50th anniversary since the first Paralympic Winter Games in 1976:

https://www.mediaweek.com.au/nine-sales-olympic-winter-games-milano-cortina-2026/

Biathlete gold medalist and SVT commentator Bjorn Ferry is none too pleased over the Swedish broadcasting decision of having biathlon during the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics "surprisingly" on TV4 instead of the well-experienced and well-associated SVT. And believes many Swedes will agree with him there. Talk exists that TV4 and SVT would share commentators for this project. But Ferry is with SVT until 2028 and may just remain there in some capacity with this Winter Olympics. Maybe direct from Stockholm: 

https://mumbrella.com.au/nine-puts-a-price-on-winter-olympics-as-packages-revealed-879429

Lasse Granqvist has covered several Olympics, both kinds, but never with TV4 but is excited about the prospects of participating with it starting with Milan-Cortina 2026: 

https://www.tv4.se/artikel/hLdssSzIrAxljadUaRy9C/lasse-granqvists-os-glaedje-ska-goera-allt-jag-kan-foer-att-vara-daer

[Durban Sandshark]

TVP Polska will send around 40 personnel including tech and production for its TVP Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage. But this time, the TVP Milan-Cortina 2026 commentators will only be present in events where the 2026 Polish Winter Olympic Team will be present and/or, more likely, have better top achievement competition/medal prospects in select sports due to the distance in location events there like snowboarding or short track. And focus on them. So no cross-country skiing here. Only sent 7 journalists to Beijing by comparison:  

https://www.press.pl/tresc/86536,tvp-wysle-ok_-40-osobowa-ekipe na-igrzyska-olimpijskie-mediolan-cortina-2026

Based on the NBCU's Upfront presentation in New York's Radio City Music Hall in May to advertisers, I anticipated Telemundo's announced new sports FAST 24/7 channel Telemundo Deportes AHORA would take care of the US Spanish Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic TV rights. But this upcoming edition of the Winter Olympics is not part of its upcoming 2025-26 sports slate headlined by the 2026 FIFA World Cup, Super Bowl LX, the NBA, and England's Premier League. Apparently, there's still a chance for it to appear--after all, MSNBC has been an important part of NBC's Olympic broadcasting for many years now on the English side. Not to mention RDS Info is a TV broadcasting partner on the French-Canadian side for Radio-Canada/SRC--but planning and time is getting limited. Having Telemundo Deportes AHORA there on the roster can obviously help expand the US Spanish coverage of the Winter Olympics to a new record beyond Telemundo and NBC Universo/Mun2. Surely Telemundo Deportes AHORA will naturally play an important role come Los Angeles 2028 in three years, considering the massive Spanish-speaking communities there.  

Much of that same personnel we saw in Paris 2024 for the CBC--Anastassia Bucsis, Andi Petrillo, with Rob Pizzo and Julie Stewart-Binks returning to the sports report desk like we see over on SRC's French side back in February can be expected. Someone has to replace Scott Russell now that he has since left to work at Nipissing University at North Bay, Ontario after Paris 2024. Since the CBC will use the same broadcasting structure with Milan-Cortina like with Paris, sharing the same time zone, that primetime highlights/analysis segment will return but maybe with different people than with Waneek Horn-Miller, Perdita Felicien, and Craig McMorris with Petrillo still hosting (or the Canadian Screen Award winner may move to host an Olympic segment again), although all three may still return. Probrably more likely Felicien but we'll see. Here, it may be more hockey-centric (and perhaps ditto with curling). The CBC reporters working in Paris can be expected to return along with podcasts like maybe Mark Strong and Jemmi returning for Olympic FOMO. 

Seems as though the same sponsors like RBC (Royal Bank of Canada), Petro-Canada, Bell Canada, and Toyota will come back as CBC Olympic sponsors. Expect  Canadian Indigenous languages be used again here in select events like we've seen on the CBC since Tokyo with Cree, Innu, Atikamekw, and Inuktitut. Maybe the language roster might get expanded to include a few more (Mohawk, Dene, Mikmak) like during the Canadian Olympic Broadcast Media Consortium 2010-2012 era with APTN. 

Just in case what Nine Network Australia's already-announced Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic and Paralympic broadcasting personnel team (so far...) looks like

JoongAng Group, owners and operators of the JTBC, selects Naver as the preferred bidder for new media broadcasting rights in its bid for broadcast rights to the Summer and Winter Olympics and the 2026 World Cup with plans to "combining JTBC’s content production capabilities with Naver’s digital platform infrastructure, the partnership is expected to introduce a new paradigm to Korea’s sports broadcasting market" and move away from the terrestrial TV broadcast model and towards an open, viewer-centric sports ecosystem with an integrated traditional and digital streaming model that will include AI and co-watching experiences like the latter's Chzzk streaming:

https://koreajoongangdaily.joins.com/news/2025-06-12/business/industry/JoongAng-Group-selects-Naver-as-preferred-bidder-for-Olympics-World-Cup-new-media-broadcasting-rights/2328971

[Durban Sandshark]

SVG presents an exclusive look with an accompanying vide on how NBC Olympics, revealed last month in New York City, continues to innovate its media-management, storage, and cloud-based workflows--through ingest and metadata tagging to editing, archiving, distribution, and beyond--to meet the ever-growing demands of Olympic-scale production and content for Milan-Cortina 2026 upcoming coverage and its complex support system following its Paris 2024 success:

https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/08/21/from-paris-to-milan-how-nbc-olympics-continues-to-lead-the-way-in-media-management/

Franco Bragagna aims to to be involved with the host nation's Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics RAI coverage before retiring as its sports face. He's not in action right now for over a year due to overdue vacation time until the World Track and Field Championship in Tokyo on September 13, which has brought criticism on RAI Sport and a social media petition. But that may not likely happen in time because he's now suing RAI:
https://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2025/08/28/possibile-ritorno-in-telecronaca-per-le-olimpiadi-di-milano-cortina-franco-bragagna-in-causa-con-la-rai/8107731/

https://www.fanpage.it/spettacolo/personaggi/franco-bragagna-in-causa-con-la-rai-possibile-un-ritorno-alle-olimpiadi-milano-cortina/

France Televisions on its back-to-school press conference in Paris July 8 that, following the success of francetv.fr Paris 2024, it will set up a new digital channel devoted to its upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage is set to air starting February 6 and will actually extend to France hosting the next Winter Olympics in the French Alps come 2030 supplying sports on its francetv.fr platform. France Télévisions will also set up an exceptional broadcast and digital system and mobilize a team of journalists and consultants to provide live and complete coverage of all the competitions. A 24-hour offer to intensely experience the biggest events and complimenting the linear TV broadcasting offering for the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics. No word yet on what Winter Olympic sports will be featured there. Maybe snowboarding, freestyle skiing and ski cross France TV Sport will also have a "Fan Zone" that will allow viewers to interact live with our specialists via a chat, offering even greater proximity for enthusiasts:

https://www.francetelevisions.fr/et-vous/notre-tele/en-bref/rentree-2025-les-nouveautes-45706

France Televisions will also broadcast Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic figure skating qualifications live from Beijing September 19-21 on france.tv with the likely France TV figure skating commentary team for Milan-Cortina 2026 of Marie-Christelle Maury, Annick Dumont, and Nathalie Péchalat:

https://www.francetvpro.fr/contenu-de-presse/74623385

ZDF in Germany will broadcast up to 15 hours live from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. CET on nine of the 17 broadcast days. Look forward to over 100 hours of live sport at the highest level - with emotions, tears and cheers. The 2026 Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics guarantee more attention for advertisers' TV spots, as perimeter and jersey advertising are not permitted. Their appearance during ZDF's commercial breaks ensures their brand communication is spot-on. Mainzelmännchen, who are passionate about winter sports, also provide exclusive individual packaging. In addition to traditional booking opportunities, ZDF have put together a single split-screen package for them. It includes a total of eleven placements and ensures the highest level of exclusivity and involvement in the major sports, including biathlon, ski jumping, and alpine skiing. The IOC is allowing its clients to use this form of advertising for the first time with the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Games as a premiere potential advertisers shouldn't miss. You can find all offers in the "Advertising Opportunities Milan-Cortina 2026" service box. The "Ratings Ticker Beijing 2022" service box also includes the ratings for the last Winter Games in Beijing in 2022.

ZDF will come on the air for its Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage February 5 (12:05-3pm CET for the Germany-Sweden women's ice hockey preliminary game), 8, 10, 12, 15-16, 18, 20, and 22 with the Closing Ceremony on that day. ARD/Das Erste will come in starting with the Opening Ceremony February 6, 7, 9, 11, 13-14, 17, 19, and 21 very much under the same timeframe. With ZDF's programming, there's not going to be full complete coverage of the ice hockey games, even when involving Germany. Of course, there will be daily news breaks at 5pm (10 minutes) and 7pm (15 minutes). Luge, biathlon, ski jumping, alpine skiing, snowboarding, speed skating, curling, short track, and freestyle skiing. On page 18 on the Milan-Cortina 2026 ZDF sponsorship press kit, you'll see the 11 events and times (4 days) when the single split screen ad can take place for a total of 289,400 euros in the package:

https://www.zdf-werbefernsehen.de/programm/sport/olympische-winterspiele-mailand-cortina-2026

We can expect some newer details from Nine about its Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage (along with Stan Sport) with its 2026 Upfront event in Sydney on October 15, like with many Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic rights broadcasters by this time: 

https://tvtonight.com.au/2025/08/nine-sets-2026-upfront-date.html

Henrik Ljungqvist will act as a hockey analyst for both TV4 and SVT in Sweden on-site in Milan as both broadcasting entities will share the same hockey studio in the same ice hockey arena as both will cover the NHL star-studded Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic men's ice hockey tournament (I can imagine likewise with the women's game. Maria Rooth is gonna be part of SVT's women's hockey coverage). Bringing the star power to Swedish broadcast.  Henrik already does this for TNT with the NHL and previously did Beijing 2022 with Eurosport Sweden/Kanal 5. We could also see his twin brother Joel, who already works for TV4 with its Swedish Hockey League broadcasts, join him:

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/hockey/a/63bwW3/henrik-lundqvist-blir-expert-i-svt-och-tv4-pa-os-2026

https://vmhockey.se/henrik-lundqvist-blir-tv-expert-under-os-2026-hoppas-kunna-ge-en-inblick/#google_vignette

SVT Sports, in a related story, has recruited the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra with conductor Erik Arvinder for the exclusive recording of "From the New Land" 4th movement from 1893 by Czech composer Antonin Dvořák as one of several leitmotifs during the SVT Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics broadcast in its return to Swedish Olympic TV coverage. Chosen because it not just pomp and grandeur but also full of anticipation, that something big and exciting is coming very soon: 

https://www.svt.se/kultur/sa-kommer-vinter-os-att-lata-i-svt

[Durban Sandshark]

Just announced yesterday that SVT will have Karin Frick as one of its Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics host presenters with André Pops and Yvette Hermundstad, now reunited with the Olympics, on SVT's portion of the Swedish Olympic TV coverage. Frick, who will her fifth Olympics overall but her first at SVT, will lead the Sverige Television studio in Stockholm, guiding viewers from morning to evening with her knowledge and experience while before that she'll join SVT's Champion of Champions' upcoming Olympic Special this season. No word on what SVT channels will carry it but likely SVT2, SVT24, and SVT Play will be involved--and surely carry both ceremonies:

https://www.svt.se/sport/vintersport/karin-frick-programledare-for-svt-under-os

As soon as I finished my previous post here on this thread, I spotted that TV4, SVT's co-Milan-Cortina 2026 Swedish TV broadcaster, will cease its free-to-air broadcasting next year via antenna and head into the pay-TV realm. Citing that it's too expensive to remain on antenna subscription (likewise is the case with a few other Swedish commercial TV channels) and prioritizes investing in its digital platform TV4 Play to attract more Swedish customers with. Hopefully this will take place after these Olympics since the Olympics are apparently deemed free-to-air protected in Sweden. This will also impact Finnish households next door who also get TV4 via antenna; would help for them to see some Swedish-language Olympics coverage next year since YLE likely won't do it:  

https://yle.fi/a/7-10083690

https://trt.global/svenska/article/33b1db1e24bc

Germany's ARD/WDR has a podcast radio documentary on the struggles of Milan-Cortina 2026 organizers getting real snow in preparations over the Italian Alps, dealing with the venue disrepair since Torino 2006 and climate change, and thus turning to new artificial snowmaking systems being installed and roads being improved. In Cortina, the debate over the construction of a new bobsleigh track is raging. Five billion euros could be invested in the 2026 Winter Olympics--and how tourism could help matters:

https://www1.wdr.de/radio/wdr5/sendungen/dok5/ard-radiofeature-alpen-kollaps-olympia-dolomiten-100.html

With NHLers back on the Winter Olympic ice hockey scene this February, we can very much see CT in the Czech Republic bring aboard Czech Television's hockey commentators, experts, and guests from the 2025 World Championship: Robert Záruba, George Holzel, Michal Dimitrov, Tomas Jilek, Ondrej Zamazal, Milan Antos, Martin Hostak, Petr Koukal, and David Pospisil along with no-shows Jakub Voráček and Pavel Francouz--to get involved in CT's massive and high priority Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic ice hockey coverage including its own studio set. Zaruba would be expected to cover the Czech Republic men's (and maybe women's) hockey matches on CT like he just did with the World Championships, for example. Likely there will also be presentations coming from a TV studio with just a play-by-play commentator and analyst back in Prague:

https://www.hokejzpravy.cz/rubriky/ms-v-hokeji/ms-hokej-komentatori-a-experti-kdo-komentuje-ms-v-hokeji-2025_2477.html

[Durban Sandshark]

Another notable and highly respected American actor with Italian roots gets involved with NBC's Milan-Cortina 2026 coverage but will be more heavily involved in Northern Italy than just promotional material. He certainly will make it even more enjoyable and delectable in spotlighting Northern Italian cuisine, culture and lifestyle during NBC Universal’s primetime coverage on-site. Could've done it 20 years ago with the Big Night movie not that far removed back then:

STANLEY TUCCI JOINS NBC'S MILAN-CORTINA'S 2026 WINTER OLYMPICS COVERAGE 

CBC/Radio-Canada's Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics coverage gets an expansion in their audience as their streaming services homes, CBC GEM and ICITOU. TV, became widely available of Rogers Xfinity in Canada in July:

https://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/media-centre/cbc-radio-canada-streaming-services-now-available-on-rogers-xfinity

For Austria, where national public interest, audience, and enthusiasm in the Winter Olympics have always been strong with Austria's athletes tend to be better medal contenders, even a bigger deal than the Summer version, ORF announces earlier this month on September 11 it will offer a massive broadcast offering of more than 500 hours on ORF 1, ORF Sport+, and via ServusTV streaming from Milan-Cortina as part of a "superlative TV year" in 2026: 

https://medianet.at/tv/video/statement-zum-programmprasentations-event-orf-2026-tv-jahr-der-superlative

Regarding the broadcast schedule, there's good news for all Olympic fans. The 2026 Winter Olympics will be back on free-to-air television in a big way. ARD and ZDF have secured over 200 hours of live coverage and will present large portions of the sporting event of the year on free TV. The whole thing is happening in cooperation with Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company of Eurosport. Eurosport secured the complete broadcasting rights for Europe. Due to the universal service mandate of the public broadcasters in Germany, the broadcasters ARD and ZDF were also able to acquire a large portion of the rights to the 2026 Olympics through a deal with the European Broadcasting Union (EBU).

ARD and ZDF will alternate between providing all sports fans with daily live broadcasts, all major finals, and comprehensive background reports on free TV. The main focus will, of course, be on Germany's medal hopes. The broadcast on German free TV begins with the German women's ice hockey preliminary round match against Sweden on February 5th on ZDF. From then on, the two broadcasters, ARD and ZDF, will alternate daily with continuous live coverage from approximately 9 a.m. to 11:30 p.m. CET, i.e., up to 15 hours daily. The exact broadcast schedule for each channel will be announced one month before the start and is subject to change, also with regard to the German medal decisions.

If that's not enough for German Winter Olympic sports fans who want to watch every competition, from the curling preliminary round to the ski cross qualifying round, the "All Live" package from Discovery+ is recommended. The paid streaming service will show all 116 competitions, duels, and finals live, without conference calls, and often even from different camera perspectives. Discovery+ will also broadcast some of the competitions on free TV on its subsidiary channel Eurosport 1. Here, too, the exact broadcast schedule will only be announced one month in advance. So there's something for everyone, whether you're a ski fan, an interested Olympic viewer, or a true sports junkie. For the big moments and the German stars, you're well-served by the public broadcasters ARD and ZDF. For the complete Olympic frenzy without compromise, there's no way around Discovery+. 

The Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics will once again be broadcast comprehensively on free-to-air television. ARD and ZDF, both with extensive free TV coverage with broadcasting often extending well beyond than the minimum 100-200 hours of live Winter/Summer Olympic coverage commitment as EBU members, have secured the rights for extensive coverage and will alternate daily live broadcasts as usual as it will focus on the most important medal decisions, the competitions with German participation, and the premier events.  However, due to parallel competitions that's usually the case be it Winter and Summer Olympics, not every single event can be broadcast live on linear TV on those two channels. ARD and ZDF's live broadcasts are streamed simultaneously and free of charge in HD quality in their respective media libraries (ARD Mediathek, ZDF Mediathek). 

Warner Bros. Discovery also holds the rights and will show the competitions on free TV on Eurosport 1 and will be the only provider to stream all the competitions live on the paid streaming service Discovery+, where "every moment" of the Winter Olympic Games be streamed live and in full, often with parallel streams to choose from, and free of charge via their websites or apps. A standard Discovery+ subscription (with advertising) is currently available starting at €5.99 per month. This subscription is expected to include full Olympic access. Official, special Olympic packages have not yet been announced.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has awarded the overall media rights for Europe to Warner Bros. Discovery and the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the association of public broadcasters. For Germany, this means that ARD/ZDF (as EBU members) and Warner Bros. Discovery (including Eurosport) hold the rights. Since 2018, the IOC has awarded the European rights exclusively to a single partner (currently Warner Bros. Discovery). This partner can then grant sublicenses to other broadcasters. This ensures broad free-to-air TV coverage, while simultaneously maintaining an exclusive pay-TV offering for "all-round viewers":

https://www.merkur.de/sport/wintersport/olympia-2026-sendeplan-winterspiele-kostenlos-live-im-free-tv-stream-93935991.html

Cross country skiier star Charlotte Kalla and former Swedish star women's ice hockey goalie Kim Martin Hansson help further fill out SVT's Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics broadcasting roster as analysts/experts in their respective sports. Be interesting if SVT and TV4 would also permit sharing a women's hockey studio set like with the men since there will be hockey shown on both:    

https://www.expressen.se/sport/langdskidor/charlotte-kalla-klar-som-expert-i-svt-under-os/

Only available in Sweden, SVT Play has a SVT Sport series called The Journey To the Olympics (Resan Mot OS) where its sports reporters meet current and future Swedish Olympic stars and follows their journey towards the upcoming Winter Olympic Games in Milan and Cortina next year with downhill skiier Sara Hector, cross country skiier Ebba Andersson, freestyle skiier Henrik Harlaut, and biathlete Sebastian Samuelsson. New episodes apparently come on every other month, so the next Swedish athlete profile here is scheduled for October with Ebba Andersson's being the most recent one hitting in August:    

https://www.svtplay.se/resan-mot-os

[Durban Sandshark]

Some further details emerged regarding RAI's Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic Italian public broadcaster's coverage. Already established that it will be over 250 hours of pro-Italian presentation with RAI2 and RAI Sport HD will take care of this but the opening ceremony will be held on Friday 6 February at 8pm CET local time at the San Siro Stadium in Milan and will be broadcast live on RAI1. Further details now emerge pledging that... 

Quote

The Olympic schedule will be rich and varied, with regular programmes such as "Buongiorno Olimpiade", "Notti Olimpiche" which will include live broadcasts of the competitions, reruns and "TG Olimpici". The broadcasts will follow the main competitions from morning until late evening, covering disciplines such as freestyle, alpine skiing, cross-country skiing, snowboarding, curling, bobsleigh, skeleton, skating, short track, biathlon, hockey and ski jumping.

The power of television coverage extends to the digital world RaiPlay, RaiPlay Sound, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok will be the platforms for dynamic digital and social storytelling, also offering web streaming and video on demand of content broadcast on radio and TV.

Regarding RAI's radio side, its Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics coverage will be handled by Radio1 and Radio1 Sport along with RAI Play Sound with the following general info   

Quote

Radio will also play a central role in the narration of the Games , with a radio broadcast offering connections, in-depth analysis and storytelling in real time. The Rai Radio 1 team will be deployed with seven commentary stations – three with two seats and four with one seat – and eight dedicated mixed zones at the competition venues. The venues will include the Stelvio Ski Centre for men's alpine skiing and ski mountaineering, the Tesero Cross-Country Skiing Stadium for cross-country skiing, the Cortina Sliding Centre for bobsleigh, luge and skeleton, the Predazzo Ski Jumping Stadium for ski jumping and Nordic combined, and the Ice Skating Arena for short track skiing, in addition to the opening and closing ceremonies at San Siro and the Verona Arena.

The radio schedule broadcast on Radio1 and Radio1 Spor, called "Milan Cortina 2026 minute by minute", includes daily appointments such as "The whole Winter Olympics minute by minute", "Radio 1 Sport coffee" on weekends, "Extra time" and "Zona Cesarini", ensuring a constant and in-depth narration of the event.

Still no word as of yet over who will become RAI's Milan-Cortina 2026 broadcast team. Good possibility we'll see some of those who were there in Turin 2006: 

https://www.digital-news.it/news/sport/53554/olimpiadi-milano-cortina-2026-su-rai-e-raiplay-250-ore-diretta-tv-copertura-totale-e-focus-sostenibilita

Starting today, RAI Radio begins From October to December, once a week, on Tuesdays at 12:25 pm, Rai Radio 1 will broadcast a radio program, “Towards the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and Paralympics”, conceived and hosted by journalist Paolo Piffer and directed by Giacomo Tomasi:

https://www.vitatrentina.it/2025/09/23/verso-le-olimpiadi-invernali-su-rai-radio1-un-programma-condotto-da-paolo-piffer/#:~:text=Da ottobre a dicembre%2C una volta alla,2026”%2C ideato e condotto dal giornalista Paolo

NBC ANNOUNCES SAVANNAH GUTHRIE, TERRY GANNON, AND SHAUN WHITE WILL HOST NBC'S LIVE AND PRIMETIME ENCORE MILAN-CORTINA 2026 OPENING CEREMONY PRESENTATION

https://www.nbc.com/nbc-insider/everything-to-know-about-the-2026-milan-cortina-opening-ceremonies

These add and confirm that primetime host Mike Tirico will offer his contributions to the Opening Ceremony from his Super Bowl LX hosting post from Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California before eventually jetting over in Milan.

Got only just over a month for Canadian non-Olympic TV and radio rights holder outlets to apply for accepting expression of interest in covering the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics from the Canadian Olympic Committee by November 4 to be submitted in Toronto:

https://olympic.ca/press/coc-accepting-expressions-of-interest-for-milano-cortina-2026-non-rights-holding-tv-and-radio-outlets-until-november-4/

On a side note, I'm sure there's a new recording of the CBC's classic Olympic theme planned in Toronto with an Italian-inspired influence in the works. 

Right now, the SABC in South Africa has yet to acquire the South African free-to-air Olympic media broadcasting rights for Milan-Cortina 2026. Its broadcasting rights expired after Paris 2024, but surely there's some discussions going on between them and the IOC in securing these rights. Yet this is publicly and currently unclear as far as that's concerned despite South Africa actually now having two Winter Olympians going to Milan-Cortina in cross country skiier Matt Smith and alpine skiier Lara Markthaler both qualifying through basic quotas. Don't know if other South African terrestrial broadcasters are involved in meetings to talk them. As for SuperSport, they too don't yet have the rights to show the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics with their previous rights also expired. But it's likely it and parent company MultiChoice will resecure them by the IOC-set November 5 deadline. No official announcement has been made there though. (thanks to Google AI)

YLE will broadcast the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics and the atmosphere there on Yle Areena online, TV2, the Yle app, and yle.fi. Oddly the next related link, a betting site, indicates that YLE will offer once again Swedish language coverage for these Winter Olympic Games:

https://yle.fi/t/18-287461/fi   https://vedonlyonti.com/talviolympialaiset

Following is only for the Milan-Cortina 2026 men's and women's group game ice hockey games on SVT and TV4. Both will air every game and every team involved. Both will broadcast each 10 games on the women's side, often spliting evenly each day except February 6 (TV4 exclusively) and February 9 (3 airing on SVT, 1 on TV4). In Sweden's Damenkronor's case, they will appear on both channels with 2 matches each with TV4 starting things when they play against Germany on February 5. On the men's side, 9 group games each for both SVT and TV4 to broadcast, but Team Sweden/Blagult's group games will be on 2 TV4-aired games with SVT getting only 1 (vs. neighbor rivals Finland, aka the Finnish Lions, on February 13). SVT will start the men's hockey with Finland-Slovakia on February 11 at 16:40 followed with TV4 coming in with Sweden vs. Italy later at 21:10. Mostly evenly split there too except for February 12 (3 TV4 hockey games, 1 SVT game) and February 13 (3 SVT-aired games, 1 for TV4). Play-offs and finals TV broadcasters for the men's and women's Olympic ice hockey tournaments are allocated after the respective group stage is completed:    

https://www.svt.se/sport/vintersport/guide-os-i-milano-cortina-2026

SVT will also show a possible Swedish quarter-final and a possible Swedish final on the men's side as well as a possible Swedish semi-final in both of these star-studded ice hockey tournaments. SVT's expert commentator Jonas Andersson is expected to be involved too:

https://www.svt.se/sport/ishockey/sa-sands-ishockeyn-fran-os-2026-i-milano-cortina-i-svt-och-tv4

Lasse Granqvist will commentate on at least Sweden's men's matches and perhaps the women too. At least for TV4. And misses covering the Olympic Games:

https://vmhockey.se/sa-sander-svt-och-tv4-fran-hockey-os-2026-i-italien/

 

[Durban Sandshark]

An interactive 30-page multimedia detailed advertising press kit RAI has made centering on its upcoming Milan-Cortina 2026 Italian broadcasting coverage plans for TV (RAI 2, RAI SPORT, RAI 1, RAI Italia), online/digital/streaming (RAI Play, RAI Play Sound), and radio (RAI Radio 1, RAI Radio 1 Sport). This provides a good idea on how RAI will structure its daily Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic broadcasting structure on TV and radio. Not to mention how much sponsors can shell out on the advertising rates for TV, online/streaming/digital, and radio. The press kit's presentation also should give us a strong idea on how the intro, its look, and bumpers would be like based on what we previously saw with RAI's Paris 2024 coverage:

https://www.raipubblicita.it/multimedia/milano-cortina-2026/index.html

Already announced but this gets a further and separate description for the American Winter Olympic snowboarding legend:

https://www.theinertia.com/mountain/shaun-white-broadcast-nbc-olympic-opening-ceremony/

China Media Group and Macau's TDM continue their Olympic broadcasting partnership in granting Macau's broadcaster the Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympic free to residents of Macao to watch live broadcasts and related coverage on TDM's platforms, including its television channels (Macao Sport, Macao Info, etc.), official website and mobile app. This deal marks the latest collaboration between the two broadcasters to bring major sporting events to the Macao audience, following similar agreements for the Tokyo Olympics, Beijing Winter Olympics, Hangzhou Asian Games, and Paris Olympics. With that "as a rights-holding broadcaster for the Games, CMG is the world's only media organization involved in the production of the 8K signal. The group will integrate cutting-edge technologies like AI and 8K ultra-high-definition broadcasting into its signal production and coverage. Additionally, CMG will, for the first time, be responsible for producing the international public signal for the short-track speed skating and figure skating events." Macau could very well see at least some of those features on TDM's channels, although it isn't totally clear yet will it be entirely in Chinese, Portuguese, and English on those aforementioned channels. Or a mix. No doubt TDM will send again its modest roster of reporters to Milan-Cortina in covering these Winter Olympic Games like it did with Paris last summer:  

https://news.cgtn.com/news/2025-09-28/CMG-grants-TDM-media-rights-for-Milano-Cortina-2026-Winter-Olympics-1H2EtCg3BhC/p.html

Guess who's popular and back for his NBC/Peacock Winter Olympics debut?! No-brainer here when it was announced last night on NBC's Sunday Night Football Green Bay Packers-Dallas Cowboys game. This guy can do it all--and well--including as Olympic correspondent. He just performed this weekend at the 2025 Toyota AFL Grand Final in Melbourne as the pregame entertainment before the Brisbane Lions-Geelong Cats match at the famed MCG that Brisbane won:

https://www.nbcsports.com/pressbox/press-releases/snoop-dogg-returns-to-nbcuniversals-olympic-coverage-for-milan-cortina-2026

 

Also look for action movie star Glen Powell to appear in another NBC Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics promo poking fun of his action movie background when pitching his wild commercial idea of speedskating phenom Jordan Stolz speeding for his life from dangerous obstacles to perplexed NBC execs. Obviously in line with what Peyton Manning, Lily Collins with Noah Lyles, and Megan Thee Stallion when NBC collides sports with Hollywood pop stars in promoting its Olympics coverage. Something we'll definitely see even more when the 2028 Los Angeles Summer Olympics approaches: 

https://frontofficesports.com/nbc-leaning-on-celebrity-star-power-for-winter-olympics/

As far as I have seen so far, much of Globo's Milan-Cortina 2026 broadcasting plans and news very much centers on its planned Paralympics coverage next year at this point. We'll see them later. Maybe come late October at the 100-day mark.

NHK's channels have broadcast all 3 of Smile Japan's, Japan's women's ice hockey team, games from its Olympic qualification tournament in Tomakonai, Hokkaido against France, Poland, and China: 

https://www.nhk.jp/p/ts/M8NJ7KR1ZJ/list/

[Durban Sandshark]

NBC Olympics announces its Milan-Cortina 2026 hockey broadcasting team, many with multiple Olympic assigments: Eddie Olcyzk, Kenny Albert, AJ Mleczko, Brian Boucher, Kathryn Tappen, and Anson Carter all reuniting to the Peacock this February following the demise of the NHL On NBC. Makes sense to recruit them even if it's just a short period incentivized with the return of NHL players to this Winter Olympics. Was hoping it'll be like this. Plus, 3x Canada gold medalist and soon-to-be-enshrined Hockey Hall of Famer Jenn Botterill will serve as an “Inside the Glass” analyst for women’s games beginning with the quarterfinals. Brendan Burke and Chris Vosters will also handle play-by-play in the men’s and women’s hockey tournament, marking their respective third and fourth NBC Olympics assignments. Burke and Vosters will be joined by analysts including: 11-year NHL veteran Carter, a two-time gold medalist with Canada in the World Championships (1997, 2003), in his third NBC Olympics assignment; T.J. Oshie, a 16-year NHL veteran making his NBC Olympics debut, and Angela Ruggiero returns for her second Olympic assignment stint. Looking forward to the CBC's Milan-Cortina 2026 Olympic hockey broadcasting team being announced:

https://www.sportsvideo.org/2025/10/13/behind-the-mic-nbc-announces-milan-cortina-winter-olympics-hockey-commentary-team-espn-signs-eric-moody-for-sports-sports-betting/

After the amazing success and ratings of its Paris 2024 coverage, not the least of which helped by Australia's success there, the Nine Network at its Upfront announces in Sydney today that Ally Langdon and James Bracey will lead the Nine's Milan-Cortina 2026 broadcast from a studio in Livigno, in the Italian Alps, with assistance from Leila McKinnon and Todd Woodbridge. In Sydney, Sylvia Jeffreys and Dylan Alcott will cover the morning shift with a state-of-the-art set. Nine is confident of winning the Aussie TV ratings war in February with its beefed-up Winter Olympics coverage as Australia is expected to score a record Winter Olympic medal haul in Milan-Cortina:

https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/winter-olympics-new-mafs-and-celebrities-swimming-with-sharks-nine-reveals-2026-programs-20251015-p5n2r2.html

Woodbridge will be part of the commentary team and maybe so too with McKinnon. The 9News team will have Danika Mason and Damian Ryan in Livigno, Christine Ahern in Milan, and Lauren Tomasi in Cortina, all on the ground delivering breaking news and exclusive content from all around Northern Italy, ensuring the viewers feel the energy from every corner of the Olympics. New commentator analysts/experts to the 9 team were also announced with Beijing 2022 skeleton silver medalist Jaclyn Narracot, pro snowboarder Jye Kearney, pro freestyle skiier Mia Rennie, and snowsport expert Luke Kneller. Nine's preview show ‘Let The Games Begin‘ starts things off on February 4, followed by two thrilling days of live sport before the official Opening Ceremony on February 6, the 9Network will provide round-the-clock coverage on Channel 9HD and 9GemHD with every event also streamed live and on demand on Stan Sport:

https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2025/10/15/nine-upfronts-winter-games-shark-and-mafs-spin-off-lead-2026-slate/

Nine Network brings back the Beyond the Dream documentary in a Milan-Cortina version, celebrating the Australian spirit and presenting resounding evidence that Australia is very much more than capable as a "sunburnt country" in the Southern Hemisphere to build and have a successful Winter Olympic athletes and legacy as resilient underdogs. Includes interviews with past Australian Winter Olympians and never before seen footage and untold stories of the biggest current Australian gold medal hopefuls preparing for those opportunities:

https://tvblackbox.com.au/page/2025/10/15/nine-upfronts-winter-games-shark-and-mafs-spin-off-lead-2026-slate/

Pretty much we can expect ZDF's broadcast team in Milan-Cortina will resemble the very same lineup structured over at ZDF Sportstudio Live: Wintersport. Including...(hockey will come later) 

Quote

Moderation in the ZDF studio:
Katrin Müller-Hohenstein, Katja Streso

Biathlon :
Moderation: Alexander Ruda
Commentator: Volker Grube
Co-commentator: Sven Fischer
Expert: Denise Herrmann-Wick

Alpine skiing:
Moderation: Amelie Stiefvatter
Commentators:
Fabian Meseberg (Men's competitions), Julius Hilfenhaus (Women's competitions)
Expert: Marco Büchel

Men's Ski Jumping:
Moderator: Lena Kesting
Commentator: Stefan Bier
Expert: Severin Freund

Women's Ski Jumping:
Commentator: Eike Papsdorf

Nordic Combined
Commentator: Meili Scheidemann

Cross-country skiing:
Tour de Ski presenter: Florian Zschiedrich
Commentator: Heiko Klasen

Bob/Skeleton:
Commentators: Michael Kreutz, Felix Tusche

Tobogganing:
Commentator: Norbert Galeske

Speed skating:
Commentator: Hermann Valkyser

Skicross and Snowboard:
Reporters: Marc Windgassen, Felix Tusche

For France Televisions, it has a 2:30 minute Q&A with Laurent Luyat, who will be again one of the France Televisions Olympic faces, on what makes Milan-Cortina 2026 unique, its general coverage plans, about France's Winter Olympic prospects, its Olympic broadcasting history since Moscow 1980 (didn't know that). Click below for the uploaded France Televisions Milan-Cortina 2026 Winter Olympics advertising e-press kit. It hopes to have a major national audience share that's big since Torino 2006, when it was last held in Europe:  

https://www.francetvpub.fr/offres/offres-jeux-olympiques-dhiver-de-milano-cortina-2026/

RAI Isoradio launches a new segment: "Speciale Milano/Cortina 2026," conceived and hosted by Camilla Ferranti, who will accompany listeners, step by step, on the road to the Winter Olympics. The program "Da casello a casello" (From Casello to Casello) will air every Wednesday between 11:00 and 12:00 a.m. and will feature many key figures from Milan/Cortina, including the athletes, torchbearers, and volunteers of this major sporting event, as well as the ambassadors—prominent figures from the worlds of sport, culture, and social media—appointed to promote the 2026 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games in Italy and around the world. The new Isoradio segment, Speciale Milano/Cortina 2026, will be an entertaining story, packed with rhythm and music, featuring numerous events leading up to the lighting of the flame and the long 12,000-kilometer journey across Italy to kick off the opening of the 25th edition of the Olympic Winter Games on February 6th:

https://www.rai.it/ufficiostampa/assets/template/us-articolo.html?ssiPath=/articoli/2025/10/Speciale-MilanoCortina-2026-bdbc0ade-1ab0-463e-8945-ab92209982f9-ssi.html

[Durban Sandshark]

Forgot to provide the ZDF Sportstudio Live Wintersport roster URL link: 

https://presseportal.zdf.de/pressemappe/sportstudio-live-wintersport-3

A beloved and decorated Swedish ice hockey icon is the first person announced for Eurosport Sweden/HBO Max's Milan-Cortina 2026 ice hockey team: it's Håkan "Hak-Eye" Södergren, the Tre Kronor and Djurgårdens IF icon with a trophy cabinet filled with Olympic medals, World Championship gold and Swedish Championship gold, makes his comeback as its analyst in his return since Sochi 2014 for both men's and women's hockey tournaments and significantly Tre Kronor and Damenkronor:

https://press.warnerbrosdiscovery.se/post/hak-eye-klar-for-hbo-max-och-os-i-milano-cortina-2026