Top sites to watch sports after you dump cable
Now that you have given the cable company their marching orders you might be wondering how you are going to watch your sports. Streaming services like Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, or Netflix do fine for TV or movies, but finding out where to watch the big game is a little more complex. Read on to find out how to watch sports online after cutting the cord.
SlingTV- $20/month
ESPN and ESPN2 are both available via SlingTV. ESPN is the top channel for sports making both pro and college sports games and news available 24-7. NFL, MLB, NHL and the NBA are all here. College basketball, baseball, hockey, football, soccer and more. The best source for sports on a budget is yours via SlingTV. SlingTV is available for only $20 a month and you get the added bonus of other channels like HGTV, CNN, Cartoon Network, A&E, TNT and many more. SlingTV is the best deal in online streaming and is the first real alternative to replace cable.
Online Season Packages
Subscribing to any season-long service won’t be cheap, but it all depends how you look at it. These sports packages give the true sports fan a big bang for his or her buck.
MLB.TV – $99 for a season or free for select games
For less than a hundred dollars you get access to all major league teams and almost all their games. Blackout restrictions apply in certain areas, but you can check before you commit. For real baseball fans a hundred dollars gives you your choice of almost any game you want. Day games and evening games and late night games from the West coast are all yours for about 50 cents a day. If you don’t want or need all those games, but would like just a sampling, MLB.TV offers free games too. They call it their free game of the day, but there isn’t a free game each day.
NHL.TV – $130 for a season ($105 for a single team)
NHL.TV’s All Access Offers you up to 40 out of market games per week in beautiful HD at 60 frames per second. Of course your quality will depend on a fast and reliable internet connection. The All Access package costs just over $130 for the season. You may get a single team package for about $105 a year, not that much of a savings, but for fans that only want to watch one team you will save $25.
NBA League Pass – $200 for a season ($120 for a single team)
NBA League Pass is $200 a year or $120 for your favorite team. Subscribers can watch up to 40 out of market NBA games a week plus Tuesday Night “Fan Night” and access to NBA Gametime Live, a nightly studio show.
NFL Game Pass – $100 a season
NFL Game Pass is a little different than the other online subscription services. You will get a lot of games to choose from, all of them, but none of them will be live. Formerly known as NFL Replay, this service will give you access to replays of all 256 regular season games on-demand. You will also get live audio if you can’t wait for the replay. NFL Game Pass is available on multiple devices, but replays are available at different times, not all directly after the game is over. For Sunday afternoon games starting at 1 PM and 4 PM, these will be available by 8PM Sunday. Sunday night, Monday night and Thursday night games are available soon after the conclusion of the game. If you are patient, this is a great alternative to paying the big bucks for DirecTV’s subscription package and you get all the games whenever you want to watch on demand – after they are finished of course.
Yahoo Sports – FREE
Yahoo Sports is a favorite for sports fans due to its writing, available statistics, commentary, and fantasy sports leagues. Yahoo has dabbled in sports streaming, but this year Yahoo is slated to broadcast a free MLB game each day for the 2016 season. 180 games in all, all for free. This may be a big surprise for some as it doesn’t get much coverage, but Yahoo Sport’s free baseball streaming could be the best free sports offering of the year. Previously Yahoo has streamed NHL and NFL games.
Cable TV – never free
Of course if you actually pay for cable you may also watch online via the Web or other apps by signing in with your providers credentials. We aren’t devoting much time exploring these options as most of our readers are looking for ways to pay less or even nothing for their sports entertainment. These online options are great for convenience, but not so much for reducing your cost of sports entertainment.
Don’t forget the antenna – always free
I know this isn’t an online source, but the purpose of this article is to allow you to enjoy sports without having to pay a huge cable bill each month. We always like to remind our readers that the best source for free TV and sports is your own antenna. American’s don’t take advantage of this free resource enough. Either they don’t want the mess of hooking up an outdoor antenna or the look of an indoor one. Maybe they just don’t want to go back to the technology of yesteryear. However, each week professional and college sports are broadcast free for anyone that has a decent antenna signal, which is almost everyone.
The biggest sport in the US is the NFL and you are usually offered four to five free games a week. CBS has broadcast Thursday Night Football for free for the first half of the past two seasons. Fox and CBS will alternate double-header Sundays with the other showing a single game. Sunday Night Football from NBC is a big hit with exciting matchups almost every week. Most NFL playoff games, including the Super Bowl are on free broadcast TV as well.
ABC will give you 15 free NBA matchups, many of them in prime time on Saturday nights. Major League Baseball is available to many cable outlets like ESPN, Fox Sports, MLB Network and TBS, but free offerings are also available via Fox. Free MLB games for the 2016 season will be broadcast via Fox on Saturday’s starting on May 21st with multiple games available based on region. Fox will also broadcast the All-Star game and World Series. NBC televises NHL games starting at the end of November, but regularly on Sunday’s starting in January leading all the way up to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Wrap up – the four major sports and where to see them
NFL
- free broadcasts every weekend via an antenna
- weekly games via ESPN on SlingTV
- NFL Game Pass ($100) – all 256 regular season games on-demand
NBA
- 15 games free on ABC
- Weekly games on ESPN via SlingTV
- NBA League Pass ($200 all teams, $120 your team) – up to 40 games a week
NHL
- Sunday games free on NBC starting in January
- Weekly games on NHL via SlingTV
- TV ($130 all teams, $105 your team) – up to 40 games a week
MLB
- Yahoo Sports – (Free – 1 game a day, 180 total)
- Saturday games for free on Fox starting late May
- Weekly games on ESPN via SlingTV
- MLB.TV ($99 all teams or free select games)
