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Watch NFL Without Cable (2016 Update)

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Credit Keith Allison via Flickr

 

For those that don’t want to read a long post and just want the details I summarized the important details below. If you want more information on watching NFL Football without cable, there are more details after the summary.

Update: If you don’t feel like reading this article at all, then you can listen. Check out the episode of the Grounded Reason Podcast where we discuss how to watch the NFL without cable. It’s free! Click this link to listen on iTunes. If you don’t have an iOS device or iTunes installed on your PC check this show notes page for other options.

NFL 2016 Without Cable Summary

1. You can get full access to ESPN online and tons more sports content through Sling TV. This will give you Monday Night football via ESPN without requiring a cable TV or satellite subscription. You can sign up here and get a free Roku, or you can simply try their 7 day free Trial.

Update: Good news everyone. The NFL has made a deal with Sling TV parent company Dish network allowing Sling TV to carry NFL Network and NFL RedZone in time for the 2016 NFL season. This means all Thursday night games not available on Twitter will be available on Sling TV throughout the 2016 season. Due to complicated streaming licensing rights, any game on Twitter won’t be available on Sling TV NFL Network. Twitter will stream weeks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16. Twitter released an app for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Microsoft’s Xbox One.

The deal was announced on August 3rd 2016. NFL Network will be part of Sling TVs Blue Package, while NFL RedZone will be part of the “Sports Extra” add-on pack.

2. Your local NFL team’s games will be available for free, over the air. That means you simply need a TV antenna. Furthermore, Sunday Night Football is carried by NBC and 8 Thursday Night Football games are on CBS and NBC.

The Thursday Night games on each of those networks are as follows:

Thursday Night Football On CBS: Week 2, Week 3, Week 5, Week 6, and Week 7

Thursday Night Football On NBC: Week 11, Week 13, Week 14, Week 15, and Week 16

So you’re covered for all but 4 primetime Thursday Night games with a TV Antenna. You can read the first part of the article below for TV antenna suggestions or check out my HD antenna guide for more information.

3. For everything else, there is NFL Game Pass. This provides all games, all season, but there is a catch. You can’t watch live on devices in the United States. However, you can watch every NFL Game live on Game Pass if you are using a device outside of the U.S.

You can simulate your computer being outside the U.S. very easily using a Smart DNS service. I use a service called Overplay to watch baseball online since MLB has similar black-out rules. I also go into a bit of detail on this later in the article.

Here are the delay rules for NFL Game Pass for those living in the United States:

Sunday morning and afternoon games (9:30am ET, 1pm ET & 4pm ET) are available at the conclusion of all Sunday 4pm ET games, and Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday and Saturday NFL games are available following the conclusion of the applicable game telecast. However, if you are accessing NFL Game Pass through a free trial, Thursday night games will not be available until 3 days after the telecast.

Those are the major details, but there are some other possible options for Verizon Wireless customers, and some select online streaming of NFL games. There is also an online option for NFL Sunday Ticket for folks in certain living situations. I cover all of this in the rest of the article.

Are You Ready for Some Football without Cable

The word is out. You can watch TV without cable and still enjoy your favorite shows without paying thousands to cable and satellite TV companies. Watching NFL football without cable is no exception. Your local NFL team can be viewed on TV by simply using an antenna, but there are ways to watch the NFL online as well (which I’ll get to in a moment).

Living just outside Baltimore, I can watch all 16 regular season Ravens games, and their postseason games as well with my Mohu Sky 60 antenna. Whether your local NFL team is playing home or away, on Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, or Sunday Night Football, your local affiliate should be broadcasting the game over the air (OTA).

Additionally, since broadcast TV is less compressed, the picture will be of much higher quality than what you are used to with cable and satellite TV. I’d much rather watch football OTA. Watching on cable or satellite just feels grainy by comparison.

Sunday Night Football is carried by NBC and all but 4 Thursday Night Football games are going to be aired on a combination of CBS and NBC for the 2016 NFL season. Therefore a TV antenna will provide you with a means to watch the game regardless of which teams are playing. But what if you want to watch Monday Night Football Online on ESPN and your local team isn’t playing?

What if you want to watch Thursday Night Football Online on NFL network? What if you want to watch every second of every single game involving every team at the same time while juggling chainsaws and riding a unicycle?

While I can’t help with the juggling and unicycle, in this article I’ll cover the available options to watch all the football you want without a cable or satellite subscription.

Thursday Night Football now on Sling TV

In a press release issued on August 3rd 2016, the NFL announced a deal with Sling TV parent company Dish Network allowing Sling TV to carry NFL Network and NFL Red-Zone in time for the 2016 NFL season. All Thursday night games, not available on Twitter, will be available on Sling TV throughout the 2016 season. NFL Network will be part of Sling TVs Blue Package, while NFL RedZone will be part of the “Sports Extra” add-on pack.

NFL Mobile from Verizon Wireless

nfl network online

If you are a Verizon Wireless customer, then you have a way to watch Monday Night Football, and Thursday Night Football online for free. New and existing customers with Verizon’s More Everything Plan have full access to the NFL Mobile from Verizon app. This doesn’t require you to have a cable TV, satellite, or even a Verizon FiOS account.

The NFL Mobile app through Verizon Wireless not only provides a way for those without cable to watch Monday and Thursday Night Football online, but Sunday Night Football as well. It even allows you to watch your local team’s regular season games online.

In addition, you have live full access to the NFL Network. That’s right, you can watch NFL Network Online Free. This includes the ability to stream NFL Redzone, providing live NFL scoring updates for fantasy football fans.

If you are a cord-cutter and an NFL fan, Verizon’s More Everything Plan fills a huge void in your ability to watch NFL without cable. The app is available on iPhone, iPad, and Android devices. Unfortunately this app currently only works on mobile devices. The app shuts down when attempting to mirror your phone to Apple TV or Roku.

Watch Monday Night Football Online

Sling TV is a service that offers live TV online from networks typically found on cable TV. The most important of which is ESPN. This allows subscribers to watch ESPN online without needing a cable TV subscription. If you are interested in giving Sling TV a try, you can sign up and get a free Roku Streaming Device.

While Sling TV customers will have access to Monday Night Football, you won’t be able to watch on mobile devices due to licensing agreements between the NFL and Verizon. However you can watch Monday Night Football on Roku, Amazon Fire TV, Nexus player , Xbox One, and 4th generation Apple TV.

The Sling TV Orange package provides live online access to A&E, ABC Family, AMC, Cartoon Network, CNN, Disney, El, Ray, ESPN, ESPN2, Food Network, Galavision, H2, HGTV, History, IFC, Lefetime, Maker, TBS, TNT, and Travel Channel. For full details check out my Sling TV review.

NFL Game Pass

The NFL announced that is will stream all 256 NFL regular season games, all preseason games, playoffs and Super Bowl for the 2016-2017 season with NFL Game Pass.

Currently NFL Game Pass will be available on iPad, iPhone, Android Tablets and Phones, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Roku, and Apple TV. More devices are to follow.

In the past NFL Game Pass was only open to people living outside the US. Now it appears people living within the U.S. will be able to enjoy NFL streaming as well. Unfortunately there is a slight blackout delay. If you read the fine print on the NFL Game Pass Website . . .

*NFL Game Pass includes live access to most preseason games. Such live preseason games do not include all nationally-broadcast preseason games and any preseason games televised in a user’s local market. Preseason games that are not available live in NFL Game Pass will be made available on-demand in the NFL Game Pass archives shortly after the conclusion of the original telecast. NFL Game Pass does not include live regular season, playoff, and Super Bowl game broadcasts. Access to these games is available within NFL Game Pass on an on-demand basis in the NFL Game Pass archives after such games have aired on broadcast television. Sunday morning and afternoon games (9:30am ET, 1pm ET & 4pm ET) are available at the conclusion of all Sunday 4pm ET games, and Sunday night, Monday night, Thursday and Saturday NFL games are available following the conclusion of the applicable game telecast. NFL Game Pass is unavailable during the telecast of the Super Bowl. Some 2009 regular season games are not available. NFL Game Pass is only available to users within the United States, Bermuda, Antigua, the Bahamas, any U.S. territories, possessions and commonwealths (including American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands), and Mexico.**Some live Preseason games may not be available live on phones, but will always be available in the archives.

Now that we’ve all gone cross-eyed, I’ll sum up what that means in English. Essentially, for the regular season you have to wait until the 4pm EST Sunday games are completed before you can watch the 1pm and 4pm Sunday games.

Any Night games (whether Sunday, Monday, Thursday or Saturday) will be available at the conclusion of the game. Preseason games will be live, except if they are televised in your local market. Then they will be available once the telecast has concluded.

NFL Game Pass will provide the following functionality and more . . .

  • The ability to connect to multiple devices
  • Turn scores on and off to avoid spoilers
  • Condensed game versions that are about 30 minutes long
  • Full replay of every game from 2009 until present day
  • Coaches Film
  • DVR Controls

Getting Around the Black-Out

As I mentioned earlier, if you are in the U.K. you can watch every NFL game live though NFL Game Pass. Therefore, all we have to do is make our computer look like it is in the U.K. and you can stream all NFL Games live as if you are living in the U.K.

To do this you can use a SmartDNS service or VPN to simulate a U.K. based IP address. The details of doing this are described in my article on using a SmartDNS. I personally use Overplay SmartDNS to do this. The basic steps to do this are below. Make sure you set up your DNS before purchasing Game Pass. You will need to purchase it while simulating the foreign DNS.

Setting up SmartDNS for NFL Game Pass
  1. Sign up for Overplay SmartDNS
  2. Follow the instructions here to setup your device
  3. While logged into Overplays website click ” My Account” then click “SMARTDNS”
  4. Here you can configure your SmartDNS settings for the services you want to use, including NFL Game Pass. Make sure NFL Game Pass is set to “United Kingdom”

NFLSundayTicket.TV Online

Typically, NFL Sunday Ticket is only available to Direct TV subscribers. However, there are situations where NFL Sunday Ticket is available to you online without subscribing to Direct TV.

During last years NFL Season, NFL Sunday Ticket Online was available to people living in select apartment buildings, attending one of the 10 select universities, or living in select areas within the metro areas of New York City, Philadelphia, or San Francisco.

This year they are expanding that offering to “select multi-dwelling unit buildings nationwide.” They have also expanded the offering to more Colleges and Universities. You can verify eligibility on their website.

Black-out rules still apply, so you will still need an antenna to catch games within your local market.

Thursday Night Football on Twitter

Yes folks, that isn’t a typo. Each of the Thursday Night Football games on CBS and NBC this year will also be streamed live on Twitter. So Twitter will stream weeks 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 11, 13, 14, 15, and 16. Twitter released an app for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Microsoft’s Xbox One that anyone can use to stream the games.

NFL On PlayStation Vue

As of August 25th, 2016 PlayStation VUE joined Sling TV by picking up NFL Network. However, they have to play by the same streaming rules that Sling TV play by. Therefore, any Thursday Night Football games not available on Twitter will be available through VUE. It will only be available on the Core and Elite plays prices at $35 and $45 per month respectively. The VUE also has ESPN rivaling Sling TV when it comes to watching prime time football. NFL RedZone Season pass will be available to core and elite plans as well starting on September 11. It will run a one time cost of $39.99 for the entire regular season.

You Don’t Need Cable to Watch the NFL

That’s the take-away here. There are plenty of ways to watch NFL football without paying an arm and a leg for cable or satellite TV. Your local NFL team’s games can be seen on an OTA antenna along with Sunday and Thursday Night Football.

Set yourself up with NFL Game Pass and you can watch every NFL game online. Verizon Wireless customers can watch Thursday Night Football online for free along with the Sunday and Monday Night Game as well. If you have Sling TV, you have access to Monday Night Football live on ESPN. The options are plentiful.

 

For tips and tricks on cutting the cord and other tech topics follow Dennis on Twitter . You can also join the conversation on our Facebook Page

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Disclosure: Grounded Reason is supported by a small commission for purchases made through some links on this website. I only accept compensation from companies for products I support. I will not accept compensation from companies attempting to sway my review of products. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.

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Comments

  1. I have a sprint phone and will be flying Sunday January 22nd. anything I can do with watching the Packer’s/Falcons game on my phone? if there is wifi on the plane, this will be my only option to see the game. Help!

    Reply

    • Are you a Verizon customer? You may be able to get it on NFL Mobile. If not, Sling TV has Fox Networks. However, I’m not sure how the local fox channels would work on an airplane. You may want to talk to sling support.

  2. Ravens vs Steelers on Christmas Day. I’ll be in Ohio and my brother in law doesn’t have NFLN. What’s my best one time option to watch the game live? Have iPad, iPhone and an Verizon customer. Thanks. Go Ravens!

    Reply

  3. Hello, I just wanted to ask what would be the best way to watch my team (Raiders) game live on my iPhone? I have AT&T so the Verizon thing is not an option. What would be the best way to watch the games?

    Reply

  4. Hi Dennis, I apologize if you’ve answered this already, but can I watch any sports (ESPN, NFL. MLB) on my new Kindle fire now that I’ve cut the cable TV cord?

    Thanks.

    Reply

  5. I signed up for NFL Game Pass and it’s passed the 7 day trial, is there a way to still cancel the U.S version of Game Pass and get the U.K version? I’ve looked all over on the U.S. version and can’t find a place where I can cancel it. And if not, can I still purchase the U.K version and watch live games?

    Reply

    • Make sure you are on the U.S. site and log into your account. From there you should be able to disable your auto renew. To cancel outright you would need to click “Submit a request” and talk to support. I’ve never tried to cancel and re-sign up so it’s a bit of uncharted water for me. Could you let me know what happens?

    • Thanks for the quick response. I Submitted my request for cancellation and will let you know how it goes. I do have one more question, do I have to wait until my U.S. version is cancelled before I can get the U.K. version? Thanks

  6. Hi Dennis,

    I was wondering when you say laptop, does that mean either window base or Macbook pro in order to use Overplay and UK Game Pass?

    Reply

  7. Hi Dennis ,

    I bought Overplay service and already configured my Windows laptop. I assume now that I’ll need to purchase the UK version of NFL game pass, correct? Which website do I go on to purchase the service?
    Thank u for all your help!

    Reply

  8. I set up Overplay on my iPad but can’t find Game Pass. My option is to buy it from the Albanian iTunes store, but then it says my account is not valid there, and switches me back to the U.S. store. How do I get UK version of Game Pass.

    Reply

    • You need to make sure your iTunes is set to the correct store in smartDNS. Personally I use my Mac and not my iPhone. Overplay does support iOS for game pass. If you are having issues they should be able to help you out.

  11. this may have already been answered, forgive me if it has, just in search of clarity,I have the Roku3 and a huge sports fan and fantasy football player, leaving cable for streaming has disabled the RedZone channel that has been very important to me. does the NFLNetwork app provide it? Should I subscribe to NFL Sunday Ticket for it? Is there a free option or alternative? what steps or should i do to ensure that my football season enjoyment doesn’t suffer? thank you for your response and time.

    Reply

    • Hi Kelly. NFLNetwork and Redzone are available through the NFL mobile app if you are a Verizon Wireless customer. Otherwise, you can get it through Sling TV. You can get all the games if Sundayticket.tv if it’s available to you without Direct TV. Otherwise, you will need to use the NFL Game Pass method I outlined in the article.

  12. I signed up for NFL Game Pass and SmartDNS. Do I now need to purchase a UK subscription to Game Pass also? It appears I’m on the UK Game Pass site, but it won’t allow me to view any of the Pre-Season games on right now.

    Reply

    • Wes,

      You need to purchase the UK version. The U.S. version doesn’t offer live access. You can just cancel your current U.S. subscription and then go through the DNS to get the U.K. version.

  13. I love PlayStation Vue, myself. Now, if either they would pickup the NFL network (they have tons of sports networks), or if ROKU and the NFL would just get it together, life would be perfect! PlayStation Vue.has just about everything I need.

    Reply

  14. Everything worked perfectly… For a day. NFL GamePass (UK version) still works on my laptop no problem (which is still awesome, thank you!) with OverPlay but the NFL apps on my AppleTV’s seem to block access every time I change the DNS settings. Anyone else experiencing this in the US?

    Reply

    • It only works on laptop, and I think iOS devices for game pass. Since each service is different you need to look on overplay’s support site to see the recommended way of watching. You may be able to airplay? I have an HDMI out on my laptop. I just plug it into the computer when I want to watch.

    • Thanks for the reply Dennis. After researching it further with OverPlay it appears for iOS I need to create a foreign iTunes account and download the foreign version of the NFL app for it to work. Not sure if I’ll go this far as the HDMI out is the easier option here but if I do I’ll reply with the result. Thanks again.

    • Ok I went through all the steps provided by OverPlay, created a UK based Apple ID and downloaded the NFL apps from the UK App Store. The steps do work perfectly on iPhone and iPad for the GamePass app over the VPN. The Apple TV (4th gen) recognizes the NFL UK based app but doesn’t recognize my UK purchased GamePass subscription. It appears at least for now Airplay is the best option for connection to Apple TV which works flawlessly with no lag and is crystal clear.

  15. So I’m right in-between two markets…I live 30 miles above Florida and 30 miles below a GA market. But all we get on cable is the Fl market. I want to watch Falcons games, but stuck with Tampa Bay and Jax. With Sling, would it automatically pick up the Fl market since that is what our cable uses?

    Reply

  16. Man, I must be stupid. With a new Roku 4, signed up for NFL Game Pass, paid my $99 and now read in your article that it won’t be available till sometime in October. Not once do I remember seeing or reading the October effective date. Why wasn’t this clearly noted? I feel like I’m being cheated out of 1/3 of the current season.

    Reply

  17. Dennis, how kind of you to help all to get our NFL fix! I need help, however, and I am not a techie. I have DirecTV (because of the Sun. ticket), and I live out in the country where no cable is available. I get the internet on my laptop from a Verizon air card. I have an iPhone with Verizon, both owned by my employer with many security blocks. I own an iPad and can use my phone as a personal hotspot to get the internet on my iPad. Personal cell phone is Sprint. My dilemma: I am a huge GB Packer fan and want to watch pre-season and every other game, but I live in Springfield, MO. They play tonight, Friday. How can I watch it live…other than driving to Green bay :-)

    Reply

  18. I have signed up with Overplay, but I am concerned that when I try to sign up with game pass,
    I will be showing my US info. Will using Paypal help?

    Reply

  19. I currently live at the bottom of a mountain and no longer receive any antenna signal (huge bummer for someone who normally just watched games OTA). I am currently trying to evaluate options to watch games (particularly the Steelers). I live in VA and frequently their games are shown in my market, making the initial NFL Sunday ticket useless. I already have access to ESPN and NBC, but would like to have access to CBS (eliminating Sling TV), and Fox. I could pay $25/month for the local channels to be piped into my house via Comcast, which is absurd to me since they were free if I were in an area that had signal.

    Is my best bet using comcast, or would the VPN concept be perfect for me?

    Reply

  21. What about PlayStation VUE!!!! Forget SlingTV . I can watch more channels and have DVR functionality on all channels. Plus it’s got the NFL baby.

    Reply

  22. How do I get to the UK game pass? I found the UK nfl network website, but when I click on the gamepass, it takes me to the normal USA game pass website.
    Thanks.

    Reply

  23. Sling TV with my Apple TV looks like my best bet for the NFL season. Here is my question. I live in the Mpls MN market, but am a Green Bay Packers fan. I know that there are 3 games that I won’t get for sure because the Packers play at the exact same time as the Vikings on the same network in the Mpls market. Would I be able to watch a CBS, FOX or NBC affiliate in the Green Bay market from my home in Minnesota with Sling TV? does it allow you to watch affiliates from other markets?

    Reply

  24. I am too far away from the city for even a powered antenna to work, and I’m in an apartment, so I can’t install anything on the roof. So streaming is my only hope for NFL. Near as I can tell, if I get sling orange and blue packages, I will have espn, fox & nbc. So I just need to figure out how to get CBS. I believe CBS has it’s own app. Do we know for sure that Sling airs NFL on the network channels?

    Reply

    • Sling TV has said that if you have the Local Fox affiliate through Sling TV then you should have access to the local NFL games on Fox. As for CBS, I haven’t seen official word that the same is true for CBS All Access, but I have heard CBS has been in talks to resolve that issue.

  25. Dennis,
    What about Sling Blue? It has NBC Sprots and FS1, FS2, and FSN (fox sports network), built into the channel lineup. I see you mention Sling Orange, but not Sling Blue. Sling Blue alao allows 3 streams compared to the 1 in Sling Orange.

    Reply

  26. Hi Dennis

    Really great guide thanks. There’s a big price difference between signing up to NFL Gamepass in the US vs UK (almost 2X on even on current exchange rates). Do you need to sign up in the UK as well as spoofing your location or can you sign up to the $99 US deal and spoof? Thanks.

    Reply

    • You need to get the U.K. deal. You could try other countries in the SmartDNS setting to see if it’s cheaper. Brazil tends to be cheaper, but I haven’t experimented with it. If you give it a try, let me know how it works out.

  29. Well the only best thing i could share here is possibly to aware ppl about geo restriction and how to bypass it via vpn to watch nfl clashes outside UK
    use purevpn and unlock streaming
    NFL matches should be aired in regions outside North America for the sake of their growing fans

    Reply

  30. You sound like the most knowledgeable out there when it comes to cutting away from cable.
    I’m walking in circles trying to figure out how to get it all done and keep some kind of simplicity to the “channel flipping”
    Can you help set me with setting up all of this madness? It’s not just NFL, but really all of it. I think I’ve just pretty much confused myself to a point of no return
    Thank you

    Reply

  31. If you live in the middle of nowhere like here in Manhattan Kansas, a TV antenna will not get you local TV. Then after you pay for the NFL Sunday Ticket on your Roku, the locally broadcast games, like the Lions Thanksgiving game, are not available due to broadcasting laws. So you have no way of getting locally televised NFL games without paying for cable even when you pay for the NFL’s own streaming package.

    Reply

  33. I live near Chicago and NBC only plays one game over the air while CBS plays EVERY other game during the day. CBS is the only channel I don’t get.

    How do I simply watch NFL games, live, without a cable subscription? I will pay money for an app that just streams games.

    Reply

    • Game Pass will show every game, but it’s on a delay. If you follow the Antenna Guide instructions to getting a TVFool OTA report, I may be able to see if there is an antenna that will get you CBS.

  35. Im using the Verizon app right now and mirroring it fine to my Apple TV, so no problems there! Looks as my way to watch all the NFL games this season without spending $200+ on the DirectTV packages!

    Reply

  37. Great article. I know I’m late getting to it, but as a recent cord cutter I’m trying to cover all my angles when it comes to the NFL. I’m going to add Verizon Mobile to my arsenal of SlingTV and antenna. Thanks for the post.

    Reply

  38. How do you get around the billing address on your credit card when hiding IP? I would love to get out of DirecTV, but the NFL Ticket is what is keeping me there. Thanks.

    Reply

    • In 2014 they didn’t seem to factor in billing address. It’s most likely because the license is based on where you are viewing, not where you live. They also take Paypal if you are concerned.

    • It is easy. Legal too. Look up my ex-pat network. Here you will see how the company makes your IP “local”. I watch a show I like in Canada. If this one works, I am sure you can find others like it to watch your team play even if it’s blacked out. Also, if you Google “hide my iP” it will explain it there also.

  39. There are man, many other ways and places…….dig deeper and throw off those corporate shackles!!

    Reply

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