Olympic Basketball TV Schedule: Full List of Times, Channels, Live vs. Delay & More

The summer Olympics are right around the corner, with this year’s Games slated to take place in Paris, France. There are numerous events to get excited about, but the biggest draw for Americans has to be Team USA basketball.

With this year’s Olympics happening across the pond, those viewing in the United States will be dealing with time zone adjustments for the broadcast. Thus, it is key to know what the schedule will be like before the Games officially begin on Friday, July 26.

Basketball was first played in the Olympics in 1904 in St. Louis, but not as a medal event. According to the Olymipcs website, it was put on as a “demonstration” event. In 1936, men’s basketball was introduced as a medal event. You will be unsurprised to learn Team USA won gold. In 1976, women’s basketball was introduced in the Montreal Games and America placed second.

America, of course, has been utterly dominant in this realm since. The men’s side of Team USA has won gold in every Olympic games since 2008, and in total have placed gold in 16 of the 20 Olymipcs that featured basketball. The women’s side is even better, earning gold in nine of 11 possible Olympic competitions thus far. They’ve medaled in each of the last 10 Olympic games and have won gold in the last seven, with an all-time record of 70-3.

Olympic Basketball Rules & Format

Olympic basketball follows International Basketball Federation (FIBA) rules, which are very similar but not exactly the same as they are stateside. In FIBA, games are only 40 minutes long (four quarters of 10 minutes each), and there are some significant rule differences. For example, there is no three-second rule in FIBA that prevents defenders from occupying the paint for as long as they want. You can read a full breakdown of the differences here.

But at its core, it’s basketball. There is a three-point line and a free throw line. The scoring is the same. Have no fear that you’ll recognize the game you’re watching.

In regards to format, Olympic basketball competition features 12 teams in the men’s and women’s tournaments. There is a group stage and then a knockout stage that leads into the gold medal and bronze medal games.

Live Broadcasts

NBC will be broadcasting all Olympic events on the network’s various properties— not only your local NBC affiliate, but also on CNBC, USA Network, E!, and Peacock. Additionally, as the time difference is only six hours, it seems many of the events will be broadcast live rather than on tape delay.

As of now this appears especially true for basketball. The current schedule has all games available live in some capacity; a few games will be shown live on streaming before then being shown on tape delay on cable.

Here’s what the live broadcast schedule looks like for the men’s and women’s side, beginning on Saturday, July 27. Some matchups are not yet determined and are denoted as TBD. When NBC is listed, it’s referring to your local affiliate. All times are EST.

Men’s Olympic Basketball TV Schedule

Women’s Olympic Basketball TV Schedule

Tape-Delayed Broadcasts

Of course, not everybody is able to watch every game because they’re often taking place smack in the middle of the work or school day. To combat this longtime problem with Olympic viewership, broadcasters have shown events on tape delay. In some cases the event is not shown live in the US at all prior to the tape delay. But with basketball, tape delay only comes in the form of a replay of a game that occurred earlier that day.

Here’s what the tape delay schedule looks like for Paris 2024 in regards to Olympic basketball.

Men’s Olympic Basketball Tape Delay Schedule

Women’s Olympic Basketball Tape Delay Schedule

The Olympics are a must-see event, and the easiest way to make sure you don’t miss all the action is with a cable subscription.

Cable and Satellite Providers

NBC has the broadcast rights for this year’s Games and will be broadcasting many events on the network’s flagship channel all over the country. Additionally, many cable packages include the USA Network and E!, which will host any overflow programming from NBC.

In short, to ensure you can watch as much as the Olympics as possible, double-check that your cable or satellite package includes NBCUniversal networks.

Streaming Services

In addition to the NBCUniversal networks, many Olympic events will be shown on Peacock, NBC’s exclusive streaming service. There are also other ways to stream NBC and its additional networks to ensure you don’t miss a second of the action.

Peacock

As evidenced by the above schedules, Peacock is going to play a big role in NBC’s broadcasting of the Olympics. At this time, the service is not offering a free trial.

In order to sign up for Peacock, interested users must navigate to peacocktv.com and click “Get Started.” Once there, Peacock offers two subscription packages to sign up for— annual and monthly. The monthly package costs $5.99 per month, and the annual costs $59.99 per year.

YouTubeTV

If basic cable is not of interest and a Peacock subscription won’t be enough, YoutubeTV has become one of the most popular alternative offerings. By signing up, users can stream their local NBC affiliate via the YouTubeTV app on their television or on their computer.

YouTubeTV’s base plan costs $72.99 and comes with NBC, USA, and E!. There is currently a five-day trial available.