New football season brings new ways to access the games

Sports programming is moving closer to a model of watching where you want, when you want, on whatever device you want.

I live for NFL football. It’s the only thing I ever watch. In fact, I can’t think of anything I’ve watched on TV at all since the past season ended in February. Others are passionate about their favorite college football teams. Thankfully, now we will have so many more options to watch the games.

I read a write-up in USA Today  about what’s available. CBS has CBSSports.com (and an accompanying iPhone app) with live streams of Saturday college football games. ESPN has WatchESPN.com and an accompanying app.

The games they have available can be watched on a smartphone, tablet, laptop or computer. This is where we’re headed. You will have access to sports programming anywhere, but figuring out how you’re eligible to watch – often based on subscribing to certain Internet service providers — is still to be determined.

I guess you could say we’re still in the first quarter of where, when, and how you wish to watch. The pay TV people and programmers are trying to keep things behind the pay wall. The much ballyhooed TV Everywhere has really amounted to TV nowhere.

But this is a transition year. Being able to watch sports programing wherever you are on whatever device you want is becoming more and more of a reality.