How To Watch Detroit Lions Games

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 or Sunday Night Football on NBC. 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, you may have to use this blackout workaround to catch the game.

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.

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 $69.99 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.

DIRECTV STREAM

DIRECTV STREAM is a live streaming service that carries ESPN, Fox, NBC, ABC, and CBS, letting you watch Lions games. However, DIRECTV STREAM doesn’t offer NFL Network, which you may need to watch Thursday Night Football. ESP, Fox, CBS, NBC, and ABC are available in DIRECTV STREAM’s “Entertainment” channel plan for $74.99 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.

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.

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 $4.99 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 Lions TV market, the recommended solutions above (fuboTV, Hulu Live TV, DIRECTV STREAM) will only provide access to nationally televised games (Thursday Night, Sunday Night, and Monday Night Football) airing on ESPN, NFL Network, and NBC. The exception is the Lions Thursday Night Game airing on Amazon Prime. To watch that all you need, is a subscription to Amazon Prime Video and you can watch by downloading the prime video app to your supported device.

The NFL has been touting the ability to streaming service for out-of-market NFL games called NFL plus, but that won’t be a reality until the 2023 season. If you want to watch the Lions live but don’t live in Lions TV market, our recommended Solution is NFL Gamepass, but you need to use the following blackout workaround.

Blackout Workaround

NFL Game Pass is very limited If you live in the US. However, NFL Game Pass International will not only let you watch the Lions but every single game from every single team this season. While Game Pass International isn’t available to you if you live inside the U.S, there is a way around this problem. You can use a VPN service outside the US to get your computer an IP address outside the US. Then, you won’t be blocked from using NFL Game Pass. You can do this with a VPN like IPVanish by following these steps:

1. Sign up for IPVanish.
2. Once you sign up, install the IPVanish client. After that, it’s simply a matter of starting the client, logging in, and click India as your location on the map to turn on the VPN.
3. Your computer now looks like it’s in India.
4. Clear your browser cache. This is important in case of Game Pass stored a location cookie on your system
5. Go to https://www.nflgamepass.com/. When you click “Sign Up Now” you should be redirected to the Game Pass International page where you can sign up. Notice this page says, “All games LIVE.” You even get a free trial to test this out. I suggested India as a location since it seems to be much cheaper than other parts of the world, but you can experiment with different countries if you like.