Whether you want to watch the Bolts all season long, or just want to catch the next game, this guide explains how to watch the Lightning. It doesn’t matter if you live in the Tampa Bay area, or somewhere else in the US. You can stream every Bolts game live, and you don’t need cable to do it.
In A Nutshell
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. The Bolts do have 2 games exclusive to ESPN+ this season (1 in March, and 1 in January). A separate subscription to ESPN+ is needed to watch those 2 games.
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 if you like.
Read on for more information on watching the next Lightning game and every Tampa Bay Lightning game this season, no matter where you live.
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 most Lightning games on Bally Sports Sun. Around a dozen Bolts games this season will air on ESPN, and TNT, with one on ABC. There are also a few Lightning games exclusive to ESPN+. (even if you live in the Bolts market.)
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
To cover the games on Bally Sports Sun, ABC, TNT, and ESPN, you can use DIRECTV STREAM, as the service carries all 4 channels.
DIRECTV STREAM
DIRECTV STREAM is a live streaming service that carries Bally Sports Sun for those living in their broadcast region everywhere in the US. However, you must subscribe to their “Choice” package for $108.99 per month. They provide a 5-day free trial when you first sign up. They don’t force you into a contract, and you can cancel at any time. This plan includes ESPN, ABC, 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.
Bally Sports+
Bally Sports has 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.
I would only grab Bally Sports+ if you don’t mind missing games on ESPN and TNT. You could grab a subscription to Sling Orange for TNT and ESPN, but for the cost of Sling and Bally Sports+, you might as well go with DIRECTV STREAM.
Watching Lightning Games Outside of their TV Market
If you live outside the Tampa Bay market, you will need ESPN+ to watch Lightning games. 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 see an “ESPN+” tab in the ESPN app.
An ESPN+ subscription costs only $10.99 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 $24.99 / 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.
