Rio Olympics 2016: Where, when to live stream, watch Opening Ceremony

The Rio Olympics tonight should prove to be a rather lengthy affair, and there is  rather simple reason for it: The Opening Ceremony! There are few events quite like it in terms of spectacle, but unfortunately, there are also few decisions that NBC has made over the years that are more polarizing than how they are choosing to cover it.

Despite this being an era where everyone wants coverage to be immediate, the network for the second straight Olympics is prioritizing primetime ratings over immediacy. While the Opening Ceremony will technically start at around 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, coverage is not beginning on NBC until 7:30, and it may be a half an hour later when they actually start it at 8:00. Obviously, their thinking here is that more viewers will be around for it, and they can edit things together in as cohesive a way as possible. They are also airing it on the West Coast on an even longer delay, rather than just airing it at the same time as the East Coast like they do with NFL games.

For those who want to live-stream the event, be warned this is also on delay.

Eastern / Central Time Zone – You can stream the ceremony at 7:30 / 6:30 p.m. here.

Mountain Time Zone – You can stream starting at 6:30 p.m. here.

Pacific Time Zone – Finally, you can stream at 7:30 p.m. here.

We’re going to run comprehensive coverage of the Opening Ceremony tonight, and since we may be covering it from a CBC angle (in Canada the show is airing as it happens), we should have all of your information up a little earlier than it’ll be available in the United States.

If you want to get some other news when it comes to the Rio Olympics, be sure to head over to the link here! Also, sign up over here to secure some other TV news on all we cover, sent right over to you weekly, via our official CarterMatt Newsletter. (Photo: Rio 2016.)