How to Watch Figure Skating Online Without Cable
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The 2024 figure skating season is underway and there are a few ways to watch the events on TV and online this year.
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If you want to watch figure skating on TV, most of the major events will air across NBC, E! and the USA Network. Check your local listings to see when the competitions air on TV.
A cable package with those channels will let you watch figure skating on TV. Don’t have cable? Use DirecTV Stream, which lets you stream live television through your phone, laptop, tablet or smart TV. DirecTV Stream has a free trial that you can get here to watch figure skating without cable for free.
Just note that most of the television coverage in the U.S. is tape-delayed, with the exception of the 2024 U.S. Figure Skating Championships, which will air live on USA and NBC, and the 2024 World Figure Skating Championships, which will air live on USA.
How to Watch Figure Skating Online: Live Stream Free
Most of the 2024 figure skating events will be streaming live for free on the International Skating Union’s YouTube Channel. The only caveat: ISU livestreams are geo-blocked in certain countries (like the U.S.) so you’ll need to use a VPN to get around it. We like ExpressVPN, which lets you set your location to another country, so you can access the ISU figure skating livestream online free.
A subscription to ExpressVPN starts at just $8.62 a month and lets you watch live figure skating on YouTube free. Don’t want to pay for your virtual private network? Try NordVPN, which offers a 30-day free trial that you can use to livestream figure skating free. Choose to continue with one of Nord’s monthly packages or cancel before your trial is up without being charged.
Set your VPN to Europe to watch figure skating online free through the ISU YouTube Channel. You can also set your VPN to Canada to stream figure skating on CBC for free.
How to Watch Figure Skating on Peacock
In the U.S., your best bet is to sign up for Peacock Premium, which airs live coverage of the ISU Grand Prix of Figure Skating series. The event features the world’s top skaters competing across six competitions around the world. The top six placers from the events qualified for the 2023 Grand Prix Final, taking place in China.
Peacock will be streaming the entire Grand Prix series and the Grand Prix Final online, and they’re expected to carry the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, European Figure Skating Championships, Four Continents Championships and World Figure Skating Championships in 2024.
Your Peacock subscription lets you watch the figure skating competitions live or on-demand through the Peacock app on your phone, laptop, tablet or TV.
Figure Skating 2024: What to Watch
While figure skating’s popularity has declined from the heydays of stars like Nancy Kerrigan and Michelle Kwan in the late 90s and early 2000s (or even Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir from the 2018 Olympic Games), there are still a few intriguing storylines to watch for this year.
American ice dancers Madison Chock and Evan Bates are the reigning world champions and have decided to return for another year to defend their title. The U.S. is also led by 18-year-old Ilia Malinin (a.k.a. the “Quad God”) who is the only man in the world to perform a quad axel.
With Russia still banned from ISU events (due to the country’s invasion of Ukraine), women’s figure skating has been dominated by Japan’s Kaori Sakamoto, who is looking for her third consecutive world title. The U.S. hopes rest on teenager Isabeau Levito, who took home the national title last year at the age of 15, to finish ahead of two-time champion Bradie Tennell.
As for the pairs competition, the field is wide open with the absence of the traditionally strong Russian teams. Pairs from the U.S., Japan, Canada, Italy and Germany all have a chance to top the podium this year.
Watch all the figure skating competitions online with a subscription to Peacock Premium here.
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