How to Watch NFL Games Without Cable?
A live TV streaming service is the best cable and satellite TV alternative. Popular services like Fubo, Hulu + Live TV, Sling TV, and YouTube TV have NFL channels, including NFL Network and NFL RedZone—depending on your chosen plan and add-ons.
Watching NFL games without cable outside of the United States can be done through various streaming services, both official and unofficial. Keep in mind that availability and options may have changed since my last knowledge update in September 2021, so it’s a good idea to verify the current options in your region. Here are some general methods you can consider:
- NFL Game Pass International: The NFL offers an international version of NFL Game Pass that allows you to watch live and on-demand NFL games, including the Super Bowl, playoffs, and regular season games. Check if Game Pass is available in your country and if it provides the games you want to watch.
- Streaming Services: Some streaming platforms offer access to NFL games. Services like DAZN, for example, have secured rights to broadcast NFL games in some regions. Research whether any streaming services in your country have the right to broadcast NFL games.
- Local Sports Channels: In some countries, regional sports channels or networks may have broadcasting rights for NFL games. Check the programming schedules of these channels to see if they will be airing NFL games.
- VPN and Streaming Services: You might use a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to access streaming services that broadcast NFL games in other countries. Be aware that some services may have geographic restrictions, and using a VPN to bypass these restrictions may violate their terms of use.
- Social Media and Video-Sharing Platforms: Sometimes, short highlights or clips of NFL games are available on social media platforms or video-sharing websites. While this won’t provide full game coverage, it can give you access to key moments and highlights.
- Unofficial Streams: Be cautious with unofficial streaming sites, as they may not be legal or safe and could expose you to potential risks, including malware and privacy issues.
Remember that streaming options can vary greatly depending on your location. It’s recommended to explore official sources and services that provide authorized access to NFL games to ensure a reliable and safe viewing experience. Always check the terms of use and legality of any service you choose to use.
In Australia, some Clubs or Pubs will play NFL games on delay (because of the time difference). Usually, the Rose Bowl is available live on one of the free-to-air channels.
NFL has a very small following here because:
- We haven’t grown up with it.
- We need to learn the rules.
- The game could be faster in comparison to Rugby League, Rugby Union, Football (soccer) and especially Australian rules Football.
- Even the tackling is ordinary due to the excessive padding of the players. Our games involve much harder “hits”.
Do people outside the US watch NFL games?
Well, I can only answer for myself and my country. I am from South Africa. I have been watching the NFL since around 1987. SA got a new TV broadcaster called MNET in 1986, and they showed some games, and some playoffs, and the Superbowl, but more was needed to follow it closely. They showed a weekly highlights package of 1 hour.
I also got a great DOS computer game called Mike Ditka’s Ultimate football, which was sensational at the time (around 1992), and I learned a lot about how the strategy and plays work from that game.
Then, in 1996, Mnet became Multichoice, and we got our first satellite TV. I know it is depressing to be so far behind the first world 🙂
Luckily, they had a single ESPN sports channel, and this channel showed one random match a week, and 5 of the 10 playoff matches, usually following the AFL playoffs, and they showed the Superbowl. So, I was always interested and watched as much as I could. It was driving me mad that I could not watch the other 5 playoff matches.
Then, when we finally got decent internet speed, around 2010, for the first time, we could now stream, download, and watch matches, even though they were not live.
So, even though I have followed the sport for a long time, it is only since around 2012 that I could actually follow a team through the season and watch all 10 playoff matches and the Superbowl.
It was highly irritating to be denied watching it for 30 years. I am a big fan, but the NFL following in SA is very, very slim; you will very seldom come across someone that follows or watches it. Currently, there are only a few sports channels that show NFL games. All I watch I have to get from streaming and the internet.
But I really love the NFL. I always imagine how it must be actually to attend a live match.
How do I watch football without a cable TV?
Most NFL games are either on CBS or FOX, so depending on where you live, an antenna could likely pick up the same games cable carries on Sundays. College games are also often on broadcast networks like NBC, ABC, or FOX.
The NFL does have an app that allows users to watch games live on a phone or tablet. There are also plenty of bars or restaurants that regularly show football on TV.
How can I watch NFL games without cable or satellite?
Through several streaming services and platforms, you can watch NFL games without cable or satellite. Here are a few well-liked choices:
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- Streaming Services: NFL Game Pass: NFL Game Pass offers live out-of-market preseason games and on-demand replays of regular-season games. It’s available in the US and internationally.Paramount+: This streaming service includes live streaming of select NFL games as well as original programming.YouTube TV, Hulu + Live TV, FuboTV, and Sling TV offer live streaming of various NFL games through local network affiliates.
- Over-the-Air Antenna: You can use an HD antenna to access local channels that broadcast NFL games on major networks like CBS, FOX, and NBC. This works for games that are broadcast in your local market.
- Network Apps: Many significant networks that broadcast NFL games have apps that allow you to stream games live or on demand. Examples include the CBS All Access app, the FOX Sports app, and the NBC Sports app.
- Mobile Apps: The NFL has its official app called NFL Mobile, which provides access to live local and primetime games, highlights, news, and more.
- Amazon Prime Video: Amazon Prime offers live streaming of Thursday Night Football games during the season. You can also access the NFL Network through this platform.
- Yahoo Sports App: Yahoo Sports offers live streaming of local and primetime NFL games through its app.
- Social Media Platforms: Some platforms, like Twitter and Facebook, may stream select NFL games, especially during special events or collaborations.
- League Passes: Some sports-specific streaming services offer league passes for NFL games. These might vary by region, so check what’s available in your area.
Remember that availability can vary based on your location and the specific streaming service you choose. Additionally, streaming services may require a subscription fee, and blackout restrictions might apply to local games. It’s a good idea to research the options available in your region and choose a service that best suits your preferences and needs.
Can you get NFL Network without cable?
Yes, you can. But as far as I know, the only way to do it is to subscribe to NFL Game Pass. This is my second season as a subscriber. Not only do I get the NFL Network, but I can also watch any NFL game live or later at my convenience. It includes Red Zone and a few other things I get as well.
There may be other ways to get the the NFL Network without cable, but I am not aware of them. And I am pretty happy with Game Pass.
How do I watch football without a cable TV?
Depends on what you have already. An antenna is very easy to get a few games a weekend, mainly if your team usually sells out their stadium so it isn’t blacked out. Also, I think CBS only shows games on their pay channel.
NFL.com – The official site of the National Football League broadcasts many of the games on its website, but I’d say that only about 75% of the games you can get are specific games. It’s free! Google “2019 Chief NFL games broadcast on NFL.com” or something to see what you’ll get next year.
If you have Verizon Unlimited, Yahoo Sports is free. They almost always have the Patriots, which is who I watch, as well as the better games of the day. You also get a year free of Disney+ as a side note. This is how I watch both.
Reddit broadcasts the games in dubious legality, and it’s challenging to find them because of this. They have different levels of quality and are sometimes cut out. If you’re “internet savvy”, it’ll work in a pinch. I’m pretty good with computers and found them challenging but doable.
If you’re not at all tech-savvy, Hulu, YouTube TV, and most smartphones like Roku and Amazon all have sports and NFL packages, which I’m not familiar with, and they have different costs. If you have money for NFL Network and want something simple, this is the way to go.
Again, dubious legality is not really a punishable offence; if you join a FB page about your team people, there are usually a bunch; they often livestream it. So basically, they show the game sometimes straight feed from their source, sometimes it’s a camera aimed at a computer or TV and some guy chatting with the audience about what he thinks, kind of a bar kind of feel, can be annoying.
This is a pretty sure way of getting the games, though, and FB is an easy place to post “Does anyone usually live stream games?” Or maybe send a message about it because it is a rebroadcast. Cannot stress how these vary in direct feed quality and possible intrusion talking of host or sidebar of chat.
Of course, a bar. If you don’t want to go to a bar or spend a lot but don’t mind going out, I once watched a few weeks at a Pizza Hut that had a TV. Bought a Whole pie and some soda, asked them to show me my game, and left a decent tip.
How can I watch NFL games for free without cable?
Contrary to reports about its demise, there is still such a thing as “broadcasting.” And your local CBS and FOX affiliates will still be broadcasting games in HD over the airwaves. Two games every Sunday, plus another on the NBC affiliate in the evening. If your home team is playing an away game on Thursday or Monday night, that has to be broadcast, too. This is a technology that is much older than I am.
In fact, your local cable company is able to show these “broadcasts” on cable by using pretty much the same technology as you can, then using other technology to push it down a cable.
You will need to put one of these on top of your house. It’s called an “antenna”. Then, run a cable from it to something like this, which converts the broadcast signal into information your television can understand. And an HDMI cable to hook it up to your TV.
Go to Best Buy, and they will fix you up with all the equipment you need in nothing flat. You will find lots and lots of other content on these “broadcasts” as well.
If I use a VPN, is it possible for me to stream/watch my “home” TV stations and the NFL games broadcast in that market if I’m travelling?
It depends. You haven’t filled out your profile, so we don’t know where your home stations are. More importantly, we don’t know how you get your home TV stations, nor what kind of device you’d use to watch the games when you travel. But I can tell you my experience.
I get my home TV broadcasts from Rogers in Ontario, Canada. Rogers has a service called Ignite, and I have the Ignite app on my iPad. It allows me to watch TV shows on my iPad; at least, it does when I’m in Canada. I thought that if I used a VPN when I was in Mexico, Rogers wouldn’t know that I wasn’t in Canada, so I’d be able to watch my TV shows through the Rogers Ignite app.
But, no. Apple devices tell people like Rogers where in the world you are. If you’re outside Canada (in my case), Rogers won’t let you view any shows because they only have the broadcast rights for Canada. And if you turn off the GPS on your Apple device, Rogers Ignite won’t let you stream anything, even if you’re in Canada.
The situation may be different for other TV services and may be different for Android devices; I don’t know.
How do we watch out-of-market NFL games?
It used to be that if you had a Sunday NFL ticket with direct TV, you could also view live games on your computer. It was a tad costly; I had to pay for regular service (and I didn’t connect it) and buy the NFL ticket to get it. But, the year after I did that, Direct TV closed the loophole, and now you can only get online access if you live outside of the USA.NFL Games Without Cable
There are a lot of websites that pop up where fans of a team that live market violate FCC rules and will use streaming services with a webcam and the local game coverage and share them via different services. However, the problem is that as soon as these sites gain popularity, the league tracks down the feeds, and it’s simple to send a threat to the service about lawsuits, and the feed is dead.
In the USA, really, all you need is to find a sports bar. Lots of them own lots of flat screens and a satellite account that lets them play the games. Outside, DirectTV gives you (expensive) computer access. That may or may not work in Canada or not, or it may only be in Europe. Check on it.
How do I watch the NFL without cable in 2015?
There are two ways that you can watch NFL games without cable:
- CBS and FOX have been televising the weekly NFL games. I don’t know how long their contracts will extend or how long they will remain with the NFL to televise those games, but since both are network stations, they transmit over the air (OTA) for free. So, with a suitable antenna, you can watch everything those networks transmit for free, including Sunday NFL games.
- Also, there are now numerous streaming channels that televise NFL games. Most of them charge a subscription fee for that service, but the point is that you don’t need a cable provider to watch the NFL.
Can you watch Sunday NFL games live on Fox, CBS, and NBC without cable?
The networks you mentioned are all broadcast networks. Since the advent of broadcast television in the late 1940s, two of them have been freely available to anyone with a TV and an antenna (Fox was founded in the 1980s). Although most of us now get our television through cable, satellite or the internet, that broadcast signal is still our there for you to use. NFL Games Without Cable
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Technically speaking, the picture would be better than what you receive through pay TV. Pay TV compresses the signal to accommodate all the channels they carry. Broadcast television is uncompressed.
How can I watch past NFL games?
Although I don’t *entirely* know the answer, I still definitely know a thing or two because that is one of my favourite pastimes. I’m weird because I can still enjoy watching old sports games even when I already know how the game transpired in detail, which team won, and by what score.
If the NFL game you want to see is famous, then you can find the entire game on YouTube, and you can probably watch it free of charge.
For example, this week, I re-watched the notorious 2016 Bengals-Steelers playoff game, in which the Bengals fell victim to their tragic flaws and made themselves lose the game in the most painful way possible. But anyway, since that game was very memorable, I found the entire game for free on YouTube.
In particular, all of the Super Bowl games – with the possible exception of the most recent ones – are available in full, for free, on YouTube, courtesy of the NFL.
I’m also pleasantly surprised by just how many past games are on YouTube in full, even though it’s not every game.
For example, I recently re-watched two regular-season Philadelphia Eagles games that I nostalgically remember watching when they took place. These games happened when I was in middle school in 2005–08, the good old days, back when my life was so easy that the biggest problem in my life was my hometown Eagles losing football games.
Oh, to have such an easy life again. But anyway, I re-watched their 2006 matchup with the Buccaneers and their 2007 matchup with the Seahawks. Those were both heartbreaking losses for the Eagles, but my point is I was amazed that they’re both available on full-on YouTube.
However, only some games have their full extent available on YouTube. YouTube sometimes takes down some of the games that are *because of copyright issues.
For example, last week, I tried to find a 2015 divisional playoff game between the Ravens and the Patriots (the Pats won 35–31). But I could only see the highlights – which is okay, I guess. That full game is not up on YouTube.
In those cases, you have to pay money to see the games. You can’t do it for free. I know that the NFL offers various packages of past game films that you can buy. For example, if you sign up for their “NFL+”, you can watch every game from the last season. (But you have to PAY for that, of course.)
As for how to watch unavailable games from previous years…… I must admit that I don’t really know, but I’m sure if you fish around NFL.com, | Official Site of the National Football League, for long enough, you’ll find out how to do it. I have no doubt it’ll cost you some money, but I also do not doubt that it’s *possible* to watch the entire film of every NFL game since (at least) the merger of 1970.
I’m sorry that I couldn’t give you a complete answer. Although it’s one of my pastimes, I still don’t know how exactly you buy the complete films of old games when they’re not on YouTube.
How can I watch NFL games that are not broadcast in my area?
At this point, every NFL game is televised. If it is televised…you can see it on the internet or through some subscription service. Just check to see when and where it is going to be played.
Your television listings should point you in the right direction…or subscribe directly from the NFL. You can reach them through your local team or directly from the NFL in New York on Park Avenue.
How do you watch NFL games if you are unable to watch them on cable or primary local channels?
You can subscribe to DirecTV and get a subscription to the NFL Sunday Ticket service. Typically, if you are a new customer for DirecTV, they will give you this package for free for the first year of your two-year contract, and then it will cost $300–350 each subsequent year.
Suppose that’s not an option for you. In that case, you can subscribe to an anonymizing VPN service that allows you to choose where the world sees your internet point of presence comes from, choose a location in Europe, and subscribe to the NFL TV service, which is only offered in Europe, and allows you to stream live NFL games. I’m not sure what the total cost of that is, but it’s undoubtedly lower than a DirecTV contract and doesn’t require DTV equipment.
Alternatively, you can find streams online on game day. There are a variety of places where you can find links to streamers who are sharing live game feeds on Sunday. The downside of this is that quality could be better, and the NFL actively takes down these streamers, so you may not get to watch a complete game.
If I use a VPN, is it possible for me to stream/watch my “home” TV stations and the NFL games broadcast in that market if I’m travelling?
Yes and no. I have a VPN. It will generate an IP address in many USA areas. If I live in Orlando, it can create an IP for Miami and Atlanta, but not Orlando. If the streaming is available, it might not air till the next day, like peacock. My wife streams from Italy. The VPN shows were in Italy, and she could watch Italian soap operas.
What is your favourite way to watch professional football?
- I’ll never watch a game without having this Heavenly Matched Pair!
- I love to watch a football game alone because it helps me understand the game better.
- And at last, lights out when the game starts!
How do you see NFL games without getting cable?
This is an easy one. The answer is Reddit, specifically the subreddit called r/NFLStreams, where at game time, there are numerous streams listed for each game. Basketball & baseball have their subreddits as well. I use r/MLBStreams to watch Red Sox games.
They even have a choice of announcers, if you like your team’s guys, plus a choice of HD or SD and a choice of formats. If the stream you picked doesn’t work on your device, try another one. As long as you have decent internet service, it should look great on your TV.