Olympic video and VR: Guide to watching without a TV

NBC is making 4,500 hours of Olympics coverage available at NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app, starting with preliminary soccer events on Wednesday, two days before Friday's formal start of the Olympics.

The online coverage includes every single event live, as NBC continues a practice begun with the London Olympics in 2012 under new owner Comcast Corp.

Much of this requires having a cable or satellite TV subscription, though as an alternative, you can sign up for Sony's PlayStation Vue service for $30 or $40 a month to get extensive access to NBC's app and website.

NBC is showing the Olympics on its over-the-air network and cable channels Bravo, CNBC, Golf Channel, MSNBC, NBC Sports Network and USA Network.

[...] as the costs of Olympic rights rose, NBC started borrowing its cable channels to make more room for events it has already paid for.

Beyond that, NBC's app and website offer highlights, interviews and features on athletes without needing a cable or satellite subscription.

[...] for extensive video coverage, both live and on demand, you need to sign in with a cable or satellite TV account, beyond an initial grace period of 30 minutes, plus five minutes per day after that.

The $25-a-month Sling Blue package offers Bravo, USA and the NBC Sports Network on a variety of phones, tablets, personal computers and streaming TV devices.

[...] both Sling TV and PlayStation Vue offer free weeklong trials, so you can game the system by staggering the trials during the two-week Olympics.

Vue offers most NBC cable channels, including the temporary soccer and basketball channels, as part of its basic plan.