If you live in the Tampa Bay Lightning TV market, most season home games will air on Bally Sports Sun. However, If a game is airing on ESPN or TNT, it may blackout your local Bally Sports Sun broadcast. You can get around this by subscribing to DIRECTV STREAM‘s choice package as the service carries Bally Sports Sun, ESPN, and TNT.
If you live outside the Lightning Market, then ESPN+ will carry any Lightning Game this season that isn’t exclusive to a national broadcast as long as you don’t live in the opposing team’s market. While you could subscribe to Hulu and have access to ESPN+, ESPN, and TNT, it may be a better move to subscribe directly to ESPN+ and pick up Sling Orange as it’s cheaper and carries TNT and ESPN, and you can add NHL Network.
Read on for more information on watching the next Lightning game and every Tampa Bay Lightning game this season, no matter where you live.
How to Watch Tonight's Tampa Bay Lightning Preseason Game
Below are the upcoming Tampa Bay Lightning games and how you can stream them live based on where you live.
Tampa Bay Lightning vs. Carolina Hurricanes ( 9/26/23)
Match Time: Tuesday, September 26, 2023 at 7:00 PM EDT
If You Live in The Tampa Bay Lightning TV Market: This game is not airing on a local network in the Tampa Bay Lightning market
If You Live in The Carolina Hurricanes TV Market: This game is not airing on a local network in the Carolina Hurricanes market
Other TV Markets: This NHL Preseason game is not airing locally or nationally.
What Channel Are The Lightning On
Where you can watch the Tampa Bay Lightning depends on whether or not you live inside the Tampa Bay Lightning TV market (throughout Florida and southern Alabama). If you live inside that market, you can watch Lightning games on Bally Sports Sun. However, if you live outside that market, you will need ESPN, ESPN+, and TNT. Let’s take a look at your options based on where you live.
Watching Lightning Games In Market
If you live in the Lightning TV market, you can watch the Lightning on Bally Sports Sun, the Lightning regional sports network. If you live in the Lightning broadcast areas, you can watch their regional sports network without cable on the following streaming services.
DIRECTV STREAM
DIRECTV STREAM is a live streaming service that carries Bally Sports Sun for those living in their broadcast region. However, you must subscribe to their “Choice” package for $99.99 per month. You can sign up online. They don’t force you into a contract, and you can cancel at any time. DIRECTV STREAM also carries ESPN and TNT. NHL Network is available with an upgrade. These are all the networks that air nationally televised NHL games.
The service also includes a cloud DVR service and allows you to simultaneously stream to an unlimited number of devices in the home, and up to 3 outside the home. DIRECTV STREAM is supported on Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, iOS, Android, Roku, and more. See our review of DIRECTV STREAM for more details on this streaming service.
fuboTV
fuboTV is a live streaming service that carries Bally Sports Sun for those living in their broadcast region. They offer a 1-week free trial, which you can cancel within the trial period and not be charged. It’s also cheaper than DIRECTV STREAM at $74.99 per month. However, fuboTV subscribers in this area will be subject to a mandatory regional sports fee between $10.99 and $13.99 per month, depending on how many RSNs are in your area. You can cancel at any time. The service supports iOS, Android, Fire TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, Roku, and more. The price includes a cloud DVR and the ability to stream on 3 devices at once. (see our review of FuboTV)
Bally Sports+
Bally Sports just launched a direct-to-customer streaming service called Bally Sports Plus. Bally Sports+ carries Tampa Bay Lightning games airing on Bally Sports. Bally Sports+ is currently available on iOS and Android mobile smart devices, along with tvOS (Apple TV), Android TV, and Amazon Fire TV streaming devices and smart TVs. See our article, Is Bally Sports Worth the Price for more details.
You can subscribe to Bally Sports+ at BallySportsPlus.com for $189.99 annually or $19.99 each month and live stream games airing on Bally Sports Sun or Bally Sports Sun Extra through the Bally Sports app. To subscribe, you must live in the Bally Sports Sun TV market. You are most likely outside the intended TV market if you do not see Bally Sports+ available on BallySportsPlus.com or within the Bally Sports app. You won’t have access to all the channels you get with DIRECTV STREAM, but it’s a cheaper way to watch Bally Sports Sun.
Watching Lightning Games Outside of their TV Market
To watch Lightning games if you live outside the Tampa Bay market, you will need ESPN+. ESPN+ will show every Lightning game that isn’t exclusively airing nationally on ESPN or TNT.
ESPN+ is how you watch most out-of-market NHL games in the 2023-2024 season. Not only will ESPN+ show a ton of nationally televised games, but the service will also provide a live stream to over 1000+ NHL games outside your local market, including the Tampa Bay Lightning.
You watch ESPN+ through the ESPN App. To add ESPN+ to your ESPN app, follow these instructions:
- Subscribe to ESPN+
- Download and Open the ESPN app on your mobile or TV device. supports Roku Players and TVs, Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast, Apple TV, Android, iPhone, Samsung TVs, Xbox, PlayStation and more.
- Click the Settings Gear in the upper right corner
- Select “Account Information” then “Log Into ESPN Account.” You should receive an activation code.
- Visit https://espn.com/activate on your phone or laptop and type in the code
- Log in with your ESPN+ credentials
- You should then get confirmation that your ESPN+ account is linked and now see and “ESPN+” tab in the ESPN app.
An ESPN+ subscription costs only $9.99 per month. There is no contract so you can cancel any time you like. However, you can select a yearly subscription for a discounted rate. In addition to ESPN, Disney also owns Hulu and the Disney+ streaming service. You can get Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ for just $19.99 / mo by signing up here! For more information on ESPN+, see our ESPN+ review.
Any nationally televised games not on ESPN+ will be on TNT, NHL Network, or ESPN which are available on the following TV streaming service:
- Sling Orange – see our Sling TV review
- DIRECTV STREAM – see our DIRECTV STREAM review
You can also check the following for more information on watching these channels.
If this article didn't answer your specific question, head over to our Home Page! It will guide you to affordable internet providers, streaming services to meet your needs, information on antennas, and many more tools and resources to help you save money on TV and Internet access.
For the latest news tips and tricks on cutting the cord and other tech topics be sure to follow our Google News Feed, like our Facebook Page and Follow Us on Twitter.