Winter Olympics 2018 Schedule: NBC TV Coverage and Live-Stream Features

The Winter Olympics will return to Asia after a 20-year wait in 2018, with Pyeongchang, South Korea, set to host the first of two successive Winter Games being held in East Asia.

Two decades have passed since Nagano, Japan, hosted the 1998 Winter Olympics, and this year's edition, scheduled to begin on Friday, promises to be the biggest meeting of its kind.

Jerri L Ledford reported for Lifewire that NBC has exclusive airing rights for the 2018 Winter Olympics, offering broadcast via its television networks or the NBC streaming service.

In addition, NBC is also offering 50-plus hours of virtual reality-suitable streaming for those pay-tv viewers with the desire and the equipment needed to do so, per Variety's Todd Spangler.

The NBC app is also available for iOS and Android devices, as well as having an extension via the Roku app. Audiences in the United Kingdom will be able to watch "all 2,000 events" on Eurosport and via stream using the Eurosport Player.

The BBC will also cover the Winter Olympics in the United Kingdom, with audiences able to stream the action via the BBC Sport website, providing a guide of which events they are covering.

A little less than a week remains until the Winter Olympics get underway, and we'll take a look at some of the event's biggest talking points heading into Pyeongchang.

Visit NBC's official website for a look at the Winter Olympics schedule in full.

Preview

And Pyeongchang 2018 will have the unique honour of holding a significant display of that unity after Reuters reported North Korea and hosts South Korea will come together under one banner for the event:

Hostilities between the two countries were reported by the Guardian to be tense only in November, but the Winter Olympics will provide a brief distraction and potential avenue to progress.

The hosts, in particular, should look forward to increased success in this year's Games. Statistical analysts Gracenote Gold provided proof the medal totals for hosts tend to thrive:

Pyeongchang 2018 will also feature the debut of the women's Jamaican bobsled team, per BBC Sport, who happen to be making their maiden voyage three decades after the nation's men's team did the same in Canada:

European countries have dominated the Winter Olympics medal table in years gone by, and it was only in 2010 that then-hosts Canada became just the second non-European national to top the medal tally.

Norway have won two of the last four Winter Games, but all-time medal record holder Ole Einar Bjorndalen (13) won't be back this year to help his nation emerge as victors in 2018:

AFP reported the veteran biathlon star had not been selected to compete at the age of 44, per Norwegian outlet TheLocal.no, ending his run after competing at the last six games.

Norway, the first nation to win a Winter Games, which they have done on eight occasions, will seek to make it back-to-back victories in 2018, but they'll have to do it without eight-time gold-medal winner Bjorndalen among their stars.