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If you want to give up traditional cable or satellite TV, you don’t have to wait until football season is over to cut the cord.
I’ve been reviewing live TV streaming plans and deals for a while and have a few suggestions for NFL and college football fans that may help cut your pay-TV bill in half.
Let’s start with five ways NFL fans can save money for the 2018-2019 football season:
It may seem obvious, but most NFL games don’t require a subscription to a live TV streaming service at all. Games broadcast on CBS, FOX and NBC can be picked up with a $20 to $40 digital antenna.
AntennaWeb.org is a great resource to help you find the best antenna for your needs based on location.
If your team is playing on Monday Night Football this season, you’ll need to get ESPN. YouTube TV, DirecTV Now, PlayStation Vue, Hulu with Live TV and Sling TV all include the network in their base packages.
The cheapest way to get ESPN is with Sling TV’s Orange bundle, which costs $25 per month. See our review here.
NFL Network, FOX and Amazon Prime Video are three ways to watch all the Thursday night action for the 2018-2019 season, according to an NFL news release:
Amazon Prime will stream the 11 Thursday Night Football games broadcast by FOX, which will also be simulcast on NFL Network and distributed in Spanish on FOX Deportes, once again securing the league’s “Tri-Cast” model of broadcast (FOX), cable (NFL Network, FOX Deportes), and digital (Amazon Prime Video) distribution.
If you don’t have an Amazon Prime membership, the TNF games will also be available to Twitch viewers.
Most live TV streaming services don’t include NFL Network with their cheapest plans, but the Sling TV’s Orange + Blue bundle has the channel included for $40 a month.
Don’t want to miss those out-of-market games? NFL Sunday Ticket isn’t cheap, but there’s a deal for students that will lower the cost to about $100 for the season — roughly $200 off.
Click here for a coupon code from our Clark Deals team that makes the student deal even better!
Once you’ve identified the networks that your team is playing on (see this list), you can use our channel comparison chart below to see which streaming service is the best fit.
If it’s just a game or two that you can’t get with an antenna, remember they all have free trial periods — usually a week.
Unlike traditional cable and satellite TV, streaming services don’t have contracts. You can try one for a month and switch to another one. Try them all if you want!
Like the NFL, many NCAA college football games air on broadcast networks that you can pick up with an antenna.
ESPN, FS1, FS2, Big Ten Network and SEC Network are just a handful of the cable channels that will carry other games, so it’s best to find your team’s schedule and make a plan based on that information.
Regional sports networks may be available with your live TV streaming service. Here’s how to learn more:
Team Clark pulled the channel lineups for popular live TV streaming services that cost around $40 a month. You may be able to get more of the networks you want for a higher monthly price.
These cable networks are among those airing football games, highlights and analysis for the 2018-2019 season:
Football channels by streaming service | ||||
| YouTube TV: $40/month | DirecTV Now “Live a Little” plan: $40/month | PlayStation Vue “Access” plan: $44.99/month | Hulu with Live TV: $39.99/month | Sling TV “Orange + Blue” plan: $40/month |
| ACC Network Extra | ||||
| Big Ten Network (BTN) | Big Ten Network (BTN) | |||
| CBS Sports Network | CBS Sports Network | |||
| ESPN | ESPN | ESPN | ESPN | ESPN |
| ESPN2 | ESPN2 | ESPN2 | ESPN2 | ESPN2 |
| ESPN3 | ||||
| ESPNU | ESPNU | |||
| ESPNews | ESPNews | |||
| ESPN Goal Line | ||||
| Fox Sports | Fox Sports | Fox Sports (select markets) | ||
| FS1 | FS1 | FS1 | FS1 | FS1 |
| FS2 | FS2 | FS2 | FS2 | |
| NBCSN | NBCSN | NBCSN | NBCSN | NBCSN |
| NESN | ||||
| NFL Network | ||||
| SEC Network | SEC Network | |||
| SportsTime Ohio | ||||
| SNY | ||||
These streaming services offer plenty of other channels besides networks that carry NFL and college football. Click here to see our full channel comparison and read about Clark’s #1 favorite streaming service.
This post was last modified on September 11, 2019 1:55 pm
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