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As YouTube TV and Disney continue their feud over rising channel rates, it’s customers that are losing out. One of my coworkers found this out last night when her family couldn’t (easily) watch their home team, the Philadelphia Eagles, play—and that was with an NFL Sunday Ticket package added on to their YouTube TV plan. The ESPN/ABC blackout is hitting YouTube TV’s sports fans hard, and with Google already issuing compensation to customers, it seems like there’s no end on the horizon.
Luckily, YouTube isn’t the only game in town for watching NFL football. There are a number of alternative solutions you can try while you wait for Disney and YouTube to come to an agreement, and they don’t all involve swapping to another Live TV provider. Before your next game starts, try signing up for or installing one of these methods for watching football during the YouTube TV Disney blackout.
NFL Sunday Ticket
While it didn’t work for my coworker on Monday night, depending on how much football you feel compelled to watch, NFL Sunday ticket might be enough for you. Currently, you can either add this to your YouTube TV base plan, or purchase it standalone (although you’ll still access it through YouTube). This will give you access to out-of-market games aired on Sunday during the daytime, with unlimited simultaneous streams at your home and two streams for those outside of the home. You also don’t have to watch live if you’re not able—condensed on-demand replays of the most recent Sunday games are available starting the following Monday and through Wednesday.
A standalone NFL Sunday Ticket subscription costs $85/month for new customers, or $145/month for returning customers. Bundled costs for new customers are unchanged, although returning customers can save a little bit by bundling Sunday Ticket with a standard YouTube TV subscription, which will drop the cost to $115/month. Alternatively, opting for a four-month subscription lowers the costs to $37.50/month for new customers, and $66/month for returning customers (or $51/month when bundled with YouTube TV). If you want to go all in, you could also opt for an annual season pass, which is $150 for new customers and $264 for returning customers.
YouTube currently advertises the YouTube TV and Sunday Ticket bundle as having “The most live NFL games,” and in a normal season, that would be true. However, with YouTube TV’s loss of ESPN and ABC, this option currently loses access to Monday Night Football and many local games.
Local games and Sunday Night Football on Paramount+ and Peacock
Before moving onto the football-specific streaming services, it’s worth touching on other streaming services you might already own. Paramount+ and Peacock allow users to watch games aired on CBS and NBC, respectively, which could be enough for you depending on which teams you follow.
According to the NFL’s official “Ways to Watch” page, CBS airs six to seven Sunday daytime games a week, and you can check your local listings for specifics. NBC, meanwhile, hosts Sunday Night Football, which is a marquee primetime game with no competition from other games.
A month of Paramount+ starts at $8, while a month of Peacock starts at $8, although the platform is currently running a fairly generous bundle deal with Apple TV. Annual plans for Paramount+ start at $60, while annual plans for Peacock start at $80.
Fox One and the ESPN bundle
Fox is currently in a similar boat to CBS, allowing users to watch select local daytime games on Sundays, but it has a twist. In addition to offering the games on its own schedule, the network’s streaming service, Fox One, also offers a bundle with ESPN. This gives subscribers access to both local Fox games, as well as games aired on ESPN Unlimited. ESPN Unlimited includes Monday Night Football, which could make it a viable solution for YouTube TV subscribers hurting at the loss of ESPN from their lineup.
On its own, a month of Fox One costs $25, and an annual subscription is $240. The ESPN bundle is only available monthly, and costs $40.
Thursday Night Football on Amazon Prime
If you own Amazon Prime, there’s at least one weekly primetime game you’ve got access to. Prime Video is currently the home of Thursday Night Football, which like Monday Night Football and Sunday Night Football, is a marquee game without any conflicts from other games. Because Prime Video is included in Amazon Prime, there’s a good chance you’ve got access to it without knowing, assuming you crave two-day shipping as much as the rest of us. If not, you can sign up for Amazon Prime for $15/month or $139/year, or just subscribe to Prime Video on its own for $9/month.
ESPN streaming, Disney+, and Hulu Live TV
It’s time to address the elephant in the room. If you’re a YouTube TV subscriber who’s more willing to play ball with Disney than Google is, you can check out its own offerings.
The most comprehensive of these is ESPN, which offers both ESPN Select and ESPN Unlimited. The difference is that ESPN Select only includes content from ESPN+, which is largely made up of lower level, student, or non-football games from channels like ESPN2 or ESPN3. ESPN Unlimited, meanwhile, includes all ESPN content, including larger games from the main channel as well as ESPN+ content, which makes it a suitable way to watch ESPN’s own primetime offering, Monday Night Football.
Alternatively, Disney+ subscribers have access to a rotating “sampling of ESPN sports content,” although you’ll need to bundle ESPN with your Disney+ subscription to view most games.
If you’d like access to more than just ESPN content, you can also subscribe to Disney’s own live TV service, Hulu + Live TV. This includes all the Disney channels currently unavailable on YouTube TV, as well as other channels, including CBS, NBC, and NFL Network (more on that later). Not that Hulu + Live TV does not offer NFL Sunday Ticket, and if bought standalone, it also does not include on-demand viewing in the ESPN app.
Pricing for all of this can get a little tricky, so I’ll start with the cheapest options and work my way up. I’ll also be excluding annual pricing for expediency, although note that Disney+, Hulu (excluding Live TV), and ESPN all offer annual plans.
On its own, a month of Disney+ standalone starts at $12, and a month of Hulu standalone costs the same. Bundling these services together increases the price to just $13, so that’s likely where you’ll want to start. For more reliable sports content, though, you’ll want ESPN. A month of ESPN Select is also $13, but for NFL, you’ll want to opt for ESPN Unlimited, which has a monthly price of $30.
Then there are the Disney+ and Hulu bundles that include ESPN. Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Select starts at $20 monthly, while Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited is $30 monthly for the first 12 months and then $36/month after that. Given that the first twelve months of the second bundle have the same price as ESPN Unlimited on its own, it might be the more savvy choice, assuming you remember to cancel once your subscription is up.
As for Hulu + Live TV, this is the most expensive option, as it’s essentially a cable package. A bundle with Hulu + Live TV, regular Hulu (with ads), Disney+ (with ads), and ESPN Select (with ads) costs $64.99/month for the first three months, which is cheaper than YouTube TV, but increases to $90/month afterwards. You could also subscribe to Hulu + Live TV on its own for $89/month instead, although that’s losing out on a lot of extra streaming content just to save a dollar, and does not include the cheaper first three months. To remove ads from Disney+, you can up your bundle price to $95/month, and to remove ads from both Disney+ and Hulu, you can pay $100/month. ESPN Select and Live TV will still have ads, however. Also, to view ESPN Unlimited content in the app, you’ll need to add it on to your Hulu for $30/month (the Hulu + Live TV landing page does advertise ESPN Unlimited app content being included in this bundle, but upon moving to checkout, it’ll shift to ESPN Select, and the official chart of plans does not currently have an option with ESPN Unlimited in a bundle with Hulu + Live TV).
Finally, Disney offers a bundle in collaboration with NFL+, which I’ll discuss in a moment. This bundle costs $40/month for the first year, after which it bumps up to $46/month. It includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN Unlimited, all with ads, as well as NFL+ Premium. Alternatively, you could pay $9 more (this applies to both the promotional and permanent pricing) to remove ads from Disney+ and Hulu Premium, although ESPN Unlimited will still have ads.
What is NFL+?
Likely the cheapest option on this list, NFL+ gives you access to a lot of content for not too much of an investment, but with a pretty serious catch.
There are two tiers to the service, and both offer live streaming of local and primetime regular games, but only to your phone or tablet. That’s right: These won’t work with the service’s TV app, and DRM prevents AirPlay or similar screen mirroring features. Even those attempting to connect the phone or tablet app to a larger monitor via a cable have reported difficulty.
Because football games are a popular big-screen activity, and because NFL+ has such a low cost compared to other options, this is likely due to behind-the-scenes content agreements with other services to ensure the app does not eat in on their own subscriptions.
Still, if you have a large enough tablet option and only want to watch prime time or local games (including Sunday Night Football, Monday Night Football, Thursday Night Football, and even Sunday daytime games), it’s a strong solution. NFL+ also comes with live game audio for every game of the season, ad-free highlights, and a selection of original NFL Films content, all available on PC and TV in addition to phone and tablet. Upgrading to NFL+ Premium will add condensed game replays and gives you access to NFL Redzone (live select coverage of all Sunday afternoon games) as well as the NFL Pro stats service. Replays and Redzone are viewable on PC, TV, phone, and tablet, but NFL Pro is only available on desktop and mobile browsers.
There is also one caveat that allows you to watch live games in an internet browser, and that is the NFL Network live stream (also available as a channel in certain cable and Live TV packages). This is included with either NFL+ plan, but you’re at the mercy of whatever content NFL Network is playing, which is not comprehensive and includes analysis and other non-game programming.
NFL+ costs $7/month (or $50/year) while NFL+ Premium costs $15/month (or $100/year). It’s a strong option if you’re most interested in keeping up with stats and big plays, and don’t mind being restricted to watching live games on certain devices.
Other Live TV services
In addition to Hulu + Live TV, ESPN, local channels, and NFL Network are available on a number of other Live TV streaming services as well as traditional television providers, including DIRECTV, Fubo TV, Spectrum, Verizon FiOS, and Sling.
While the YouTube TV and Disney feud is fierce, based on prior YouTube TV contact blackouts, it’s not likely to last long. This makes DIRECTV, Fubo TV, and Sling especially strong alternatives in the meantime. Both DIRECTV and Fubo TV offer free trials, with DIRECTV’s lasting five days and FUBO TV’s lasting seven days. Meanwhile, Sling Orange offers day passes for $5 a pop, if you just need to watch one specific game.
Get a digital antenna
Finally, if your eyes are glazing over from these various subscriptions as much as mine are, it’s important to remember that local networks including ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX are available using a digital antenna in most U.S. markets. While not comprehensive, this will give you access to local games as well as prime time games including Monday Night Football (aired on ABC as well as ESPN) and Sunday Night Football.
While I personally have had mixed luck getting reception from digital antennae, Lifehacker sister site PCMag has a tested selection of antennae, with costs as low as $25. Just set it and forget it.
Original Source: https://lifehacker.com/entertainment/how-to-watch-football-during-the-youtube-tv-disney-blackout?utm_medium=RSS
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