Watching The Detroit Lions All Season Long
Best Solutions inside the Lions TV Market: If you live in the Lions TV market, Sunday afternoon games will air weekly on either your regional Fox or CBS network. If the game isn't airing in your region then it should be on your teams local flagship channel, unless the game is airing nationally on Monday Night Football on ESPN, Sunday Night Football on NBC, or on Amazon Prime. You can stream all of these channels with DIRECTV STREAM, fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, or YouTube TV. These streaming services provide access to your teams local flagship station, along with regional games on Fox and CBS, and ESPN and NBC for Monday and Sunday Night Football.
Best Solution when living Outside the Lions TV Market: The Lions have regional games airing on broadcast networks like NBC, Fox, and CBS. Any Monday Night games the Lions play will air on ESPN. DIRECTV STREAM, fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, or YouTube TV will provide access to these channels. Even with these channels, there may be weeks where the Lions aren't airing in your area. In those cases, your only options may be NFL Sunday Ticket,which provides access to out-of-market, non-nationally broadcast games every Sunday.
Watch The Lions Online (Live Inside TV Market)
To watch the Lions in their market, you need access to the team’s local broadcast affiliate.
DIRECTV STREAM
DIRECTV STREAM is a live streaming service that carries ESPN, Fox, NBC, ABC, CBS, and NFL Network, letting you watch Lions games. ESPN, Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC are available in DIRECTV STREAM’s “Entertainment” channel plan for $79.99 per month. NFL Network is on their “Choice” plan which is an upgraded channel package for $108.99 per month. You can sign up for a 5-day free trial. They don’t force you into a contract and can cancel anytime.
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.
Hulu Live TV
Hulu Live TV carries ESPN, NFL Network, Fox, CBS, ABC, and NBC. You can check which channels are available in your area by entering your zip code on Hulu’s channel finder.
Hulu Live TV costs $76.99 per month. You can cancel any time without penalty as there is no long-term contract. The list below shows some of what Hulu + Live TV has to offer:
- live local ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and more in most markets of the country
- Hulu Live TV carries ESPN, NBC, FOX, and CBS so that you can watch the Lions.
- Live access to popular channels found on cable. See Hulu’s channel lineup for a complete list.
- Unlimited cloud DVR storage. (Recordings save for nine months)
- It comes with six customizable profiles
- Watch Hulu on two screens at once. Watch on unlimited screens for an additional $9.99 per month
- Includes all the on-demand access you receive with standard Hulu and includes Hulu Originals.
fuboTV
fuboTV offers subscribers local and cable TV channels as if you subscribed to a cable TV package. The live TV streaming service provides all the channels you need to watch the Lions this season, including ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS, and NFL Network. You can watch Lions games through fuboTV online or on your TV using a supported streaming device like a Roku or Fire TV Stick. I recommend checking their website to find the channels they offer in your area using this link.
FuboTV offers a 1-Week Free Trial, but there is no contract, and you can cancel anytime. If you cancel during your free trial, you will not be charged at all. Here are some features included with your subscription to fuboTV:
- live local CBS, FOX, ABC, and NBC broadcast in nearly all of the country along with NFL Network and ESPN.
- a cloud DVR for recording games
- stream to 3 devices at once (can upgrade to more)
The monthly cost of fuboTV currently starts at $74.99. For more information on this streaming service, see our guide to fuboTV.
fuboTV is available on Android, iOS, Xbox One, 4th Gen Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, and Amazon Fire TV and stick. There is no contract when you sign up, so you can cancel anytime.
YouTube TV
YouTube TV also offers Fox, NBC, CBS, ESPN, and NFL Network, so you can watch every Lions game if you live in the Lions broadcast area. The service costs $72.99 a month. The live streaming service also includes a DVR and supports a host of streaming devices. YouTube TV supports Roku, Android, iOS, Apple TV, Fire TV, Chromecast, and more. Like the other services, YouTube TV offers a free trial, cloud DVR, local broadcast channels, and many other features. Please read our review of YouTube TV for more details on their service.
Amazon Prime
Starting September 14th, Thursday Night Football games will air nationally on the Prime Video app, which you can try Free for 30 days. (The season opener on Thursday, September 7th will air on NBC) Al Michaels and Kirk Herbstreit will be working the booth and calling the game live-streamed through the Prime Video App every Thursday Night. Once you sign up, download the app to a supported device. Prime Video is supported on Roku, Fire TV, Chromecast, Apple TV, iOS, Android, Most Smart TVs, and more.
NFL+
NFL+ will allow you to watch live local and nationally broadcast regular season games on iOS and Android devices. The services also provides out-of-market preseason games across all devices. However, this service currently only works on mobile. To watch games on your TV, you will need to use other options mentioned in this article. NFL+ has two service plans NFL Plus for $4.99 / month ($39.99 / year) and NFL Plus Premium, for $9.99 / month ($79.99 / year). You can find the NFL+ on the NFL app in the Apple App Store for iOS devices like iPhone and iPad, and in the Google Play Store for Android mobile devices. The Premium plan, adds many ad-free and on-demand content. See our coverage of NFL+ for more information.
Local Channels Only
If you don’t mind missing out on Monday Night Football on ESPN and Thursday Night Football on NFL Network, then you may get away with using a TV Antenna to provide your local NBC, CBS, Fox, and ABC stations.
If you live near network broadcast towers, you can watch games airing on CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC for free if you have a TV antenna. I recommend purchasing a TV antenna like the GE Ultra Edge antenna. As we said in our review of the GE Ultra Edge Indoor antenna, it provides a money-back guarantee with no questions asked if you purchase through Amazon. Purchasing an inexpensive antenna with a money-back guarantee eliminates the risk of paying too much for an antenna, setting it up, and realizing you cannot get reception for local channels TV. You can see our guide to using a TV antenna for more details.
Paramount+
Paramount+ is a streaming service from ViacomCBS. The streaming service provides games airing in your region on CBS. So you will be able to watch the Lions if they air on CBS that week. However, you would miss out on any games airing on ESPN, Fox, or NBC. To see if your local CBS channel is available on their service, you can check out their free trial. You can subscribe to Paramount+ for as little as $5.99 per month and have access to the NFL on CBS. See our review of Paramount+ for more information on the service.
Watch The Lions Online (Live Outside TV Market)
If you live outside the Lions’ TV market, the recommended solutions above (fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, DIRECTV STREAM) will only provide access to regional games on Sunday afternoons and nationally televised games (Thursday Night, Sunday Night, and Monday Night Football) airing on ABC, ESPN, NFL Network, and NBC.
If you want to watch the Lions live but don’t live in the Lions’ TV market, you have two options: You can use YouTube TV with NFL Sunday Ticket or access the international version of NFL Game Pass on DAZN if you live outside the US.
Watch The Lions on YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket
YouTube TV carries ABC, ESPN, Fox, NBC, CBS, and NFL Network so that you can watch nationally televised Lions games along with regional Lions games on Sunday afternoons. Those channels are all available in YouTube TV’s channel lineup for $72.99 a month. YouTube is also the exclusive home to NFL Sunday Ticket which carries every out-of-market game except those airing Nationally or regionally on the channels already available on YouTube TV. So as long as the Lions aren’t playing in your TV market or nationally (Thursday Night Football, Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, etc. ) the game will be on NFL Sunday Ticket. New pricing options for adding NFL Sunday Ticket for the remainder of the season are as follows:
- $174 for the remainder of the 2023 season for YouTube TV Subscribers
- $194 for the remainder of the 2023 season + NFL Redzone for YouTube TV Subscribers
- $224 for the remainder of the 2023 season for non-YouTube TV Subscribers (Watch through the YouTube App)
- $244 for the remainder of the 2023 season for non-YouTube + NFL Redzone TV Subscribers (Watch through the YouTube App)
You can sign up for YouTube TV and NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube TV’s website. For more information, check out our review of NFL Sunday Ticket.
Watch The NFL Outside the US on DAZN
In 2022 NFL Game Pass International provided live and on-demand coverage of NFL Games if you live outside the US. In 2023 and beyond, NFL Game Pass International is accessed through a streaming service called DAZN. The beauty of NFL Game Pass is it provides you access to every NFL game if it’s accessed from outside the US.
In Canada, DAZN carries the NFL as part of your standard subscription. However, it’s considered an add-on package in most other countries. Currently, NFL Game Pass on DAZN will be available on iPad, iPhone, Android Tablets and Phones, Xbox, Roku, Apple TV, and more. 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 the present day
- Coaches Film
- DVR Controls
While Game Pass could be accessed from within the US using a VPN in the past, that is no longer recommended. DAZN has become very good at blocking VPNs and verifying your location through other means. If you’re in the US, then Sunday Ticket on YouTube seems to be your best bet for games outside your region. You can learn more about NFL Game Pass on the DAZN website or in this DAZN support article.
