How to watch the NFL 2018 Season Football without cable!
So you're a die hard NFL Football fan, but have decided to cancel your cable subscription and save money each month. How are you going to watch your favorite team each week? Don't worry we have got your covered!
Before we start telling you how to watch your favorite NFL teams without cable we need to learn what channels the games will be shown on. The majority of the games will be shown on 3 channels. CBS, FOX and NBC will show about 85% of the NFL games this season. CBS and Fox will be airing all of the 1PM and 4PM games each Sunday. NBC will be airing the Sunday Night Football games. The only outlier is ESPN which will be airing each Thursday night NFL game in 2018. In a new twist for 2018 Amazon Prime Video and Twitch (Amazon owned Video Game Streaming Service) will also be airing the Thursday night games.
- CBS & FOX - Sunday 1PM & 4PM NFL games
- NBC - Sunday Night Football games
- ESPN, Amazon Prime Video, Twitch - Thursday Night NFL games
- NFL Playoffs - TBD But most likely Fox and CBS
- 2019 SuperBowl - CBS @ 6:30PM EST
How to watch 2019 NFL Football Games for Free?
It sounds too good to be true, but there is a cheap device that will allow you to watch 85% of NFL games for free in 1080P season after season! This little magic device is called a Local HD Antenna. It is made in the United States by Mohu who has been a pioneer in antenna technology! Click Here and enter your address to see what channels you should expect to receive. If it shows FOX, NBC and CBS then with this HD Antenna you will get almost all of the NFL games including the Playoffs and SuperBowl in 1080P HD quality year after year for FREE! If you unfortunately live in an area far away from broadcast towers and won't receive CBS, FOX and NBC we still have an affordable option for you a little later in the article.
These antennas do not just show the NFL games, you are literally getting all of these major channels for FREE year long! If you want to learn more about Local HD Antennas please read our article - Why a Local HD Antenna is the best value for TV Watching!
How can I watch NFL Thursday Night Games for Free?
So we already covered all of the Sunday NFL games, but what about the Thursday night games? In years past you either had to have cable with ESPN or have a paid Amazon Prime account to watch Thursday night football. This year you still have the same two paid options, but also have a third free option. Amazon who owns Twitch will be airing the Thursday night NFL games on Twitch.com for free all season. You may need to create a login to be able to watch the game, but no biggie. It's free NFL, can't argue with that!
How can I watch Monday Night Football for Free?
Unfortunately Monday Night Football games are only aired exclusively on ESPN. So unless you have cable or use a streaming service that offers the ESPN channel, you cannot watch Monday Night Football for free :( Who knows, Maybe Amazon and Twitch will be airing Monday night football next year. We can only hope.
Best Streaming Services to watch NFL Games with?
There are only 2 streaming services that offer all of the channels needed to stream your favorite NFL games this season (FOX, CBS, NBC & ESPN). There is a third contender, but it does not offer CBS so it is a deal breaker for most NFL fans. The top two contenders are also very reasonably priced and offer many other channels for the whole family.
#1 - SkystreamTV - SkyStream TV is number one for NFL streaming for a few reasons. First off it offers FOX, CBS, NBC and 5 ESPN Channels. Second it is only $35 per month with no subscription. Third it offers a 7 day catch up window, so you can watch your favorite shows in HD for a full 7 days after they have aired and also skip the commercials. There are too many things to list as to why SkyStreamTV is the best streaming service of all. If you want to learn more please Click Here! Did we mention you can try it for 7 days for free?
#2 - Youtube TV - Youtube TV is another good streaming service. It offers many of the same channels and SkyStreamTV, but it costs $5 more per month. Not only is it more expensive, but it doesn't work on Android TV boxes. Not the AndroidTV OS, but the highly popular Android TV Boxes that millions of people have and use daily to stream. If you have a Roku or Apple TV and like spending additional money each month it is a great option :)
#3 (Kind of) - SlingTV - Sling is a very popular streaming service run by a cable company. See where we are going with this? They recently raised their prices to $40 as well. For NFL lovers Sling has one major downfall. They do not offer CBS which airs a large majority of the weekly NFL games as well as the biggest one of all, the SuperBowl. So if you are cool with missing a large amount of afternoon games, missing the SuperBowl and paying an extra $5 a month, Sling is a great option :)
What if I want to watch every NFL game this season?
Unfortunately there are only games in town if you want to be able to watch almost any NFL game each week. DirectTV NFL Package and NFL Sunday Ticket.
NFL Sunday Ticket
NFL Sunday Ticket is exactly what it says. It streams every "Sunday" football game. Sounds great except when you read that Non Market games and international games are excluded. What does Non Market games mean? It means games in your local market. So basically this option is only good if you live in a different market then your favorite team. But if you live in Arizona and want to watch the Cardinals games, you are out of luck. And it costs $74 a month for 4 months. That is $296 to not be able to watch your local team. Oh, did we mention that you most likely live in an area where you can't even get this package? Nice huh?
Direct TV
Direct TV NFL Package is the best option if you have to watch every single NFL game this season. But it does come with a catch in the form of a 24 month contract to Direct TV satellite service and another $300 for the NFL package. This is basically cable with a $300 package to watch all of the NFL games. Not ideal money wise, but the best option if you just have to watch every single game this season. Just hope it doesn't rain on Sunday or you will not be able to watch anything on TV :)
Conclusion
You have a lot of options this year to watch the 2018-2019 NFL season this year. Options are always a good thing. Some of these options are better for different people depending on how many and which games you want to watch. Here is what we feel is the best value for the average NFL fan.
1. HD Antenna so you can watch all of the games on your local FOX and CBS channel. As well as NBC for the Sunday Night games. Not too mention tons of other channels in HD that are free for life. No brainer here
2. SkyStream TV is a great replacement for cable or satellite and is the lowest priced streaming service. Tons of channels in HD! Offers FOX, NBC and CBS streamed from stations in New York. 5 ESPN channels so you can watch the Monday night games and plenty of other NFL content.
3. Amazon Prime or Twitch - If you already have an Amazon Prime account using to watch the Thursday night games is a no brainer. If you don't have a prime account you can get a free Twitch account and watch the games for free.
We feel the three items listed above is a great value not only for NFL games this season, but for a replacement for expensive cable and satellite. So do your research and see if this triple threat is right for you and your NFL football needs. We hope this is helpful and helps save you a lot of money this NFL season!
